


Gem Session

by Karwin



Category: Homestuck, Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-18
Updated: 2021-01-23
Packaged: 2021-02-08 08:55:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 25
Words: 55,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21473368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Karwin/pseuds/Karwin
Summary: Sburb is a game of many secrets that appears in many worlds. It has been played by trolls, humans, and cherubs, and now is going to be played by twelve (give or take) gems.Note: The story will have lemon versions on both an FF account and an alt AO3 (both named Sinfulnature1123).
Comments: 11
Kudos: 8





	1. Drones, Sand, and Paperwork

Olive Peridot always preferred keeping her head down, even by Peridot standards.

She worked on machines, studied the gem production locations known as Kintergardens, and learned very quickly not to think.

She was a gem, a space going life form with a body made of hard light projected from a gemstone, ruled over by three-formerly four-matriarch diamonds.

Olive remembered the days before Pink Diamond, the smallest and as far as she'd heard, least aggressive Diamond had been shattered, killed by one of her own soldiers during a rebellion on some backwater planet.

Things were.. Less tense at the very least back then. Olive had only been off Homeworld to maintain the tech on other colony planets and gather more data on kintergartens even before Pink's shattering and now a days she was even less fond of going to other planets. Homeworld might be dull but at least the chances of her being caught up in a war was minimal.

Currently Olive was tending to her persona machines, two tools held between her teeth as her hands worked inside of a drone.

Homeworld made Peridots to last, so even falling from the girder she was hanging from while she worked was unlikely to damage her light body enough for it to disperse.

Even if it were, she'd hung upside from said girder to work on her machines enough time to be comfortable doing it.

She'd been working on this amalgamated, frankensteinian drone robot for a few decades now, collecting new pieces and updating the tech as Homeworld's own level of tech advanced. It wasn't really for any purpose, but it gave her something to focus on between missions, and gave her a chance to briefly think for once. It was her peace time.

So one could imagine her frustration at it being interrupted by a constant whining beeping sound from a communicator. Finally she decided to just get it over with, pulling herself out of the drone and pulling herself upright on top of the girder with her legs to activate the communicator after setting the tools to the side.

A press of a button to the computer like device and a screen was projected in the air, showing only text for reasons Olive had initially failed to fathom, but far be it from her to argue with a sapphire's future vision.

Speaking of, the blue gem was the one who appeared to be the one who'd started this string of messages.

Ceylon Sapphire had sent out a message to everyone in the little group she had collected to make sure everyone was 'on schedule' as she called it; though it had been a different blue gem that had resulted in all the alerts to respond.

Ceylon: I don't mean to pry, just don't want any unneeded surprises.

Zircon: No need to justify yourself. As a sapphire, if you felt it necessary to mention, then it most certainly was.

R: Or she could just be checking in. not everything has to have been the result of a vision. 

Zircon: Firstly, don't disrespect the aristocrat gem. Secondly, especially don't do so until you've confirmed who and what exactly you are.

R: I told you I'm from White Diamond's court like you.

Zircon: That's a court, not a gem type. You've statistically narrowed yourself down to a third of all gems.

R: I've already told you that doesn't matter, and Ceylon even backed me up so now who's being disrespectful?

Lazurite: Can we not do this right now? Please? I get so little time between working on this planet and I'd rather not spend it watching an argument.

R: I didn't come here from an argument.

Olive's eyes could have rolled out of her head, though honestly she wasn't sure who it was that deserved it most.

Olive: Allow me to force this conversation back onto the tracks please. Zircon, R, Lazurite, are you on track with the tasks Ceylon gave you. I am, and would like to know if there's anything else we need to do.

R: I've got my weapon and statue finished up.

Zircon: I've got something that will work, though I feel I could do a better job of it if I knew exactly what we were preparing for.

Lazurite: I think I've got everything, but like Zircon said, can't really be sure without knowing what they're for.

Ceylon: You're ready, I can tell. You're in a unique situation of not needing a weapon. And don't worry, there isn't anything extra that needs to be done, I'm just doing one more sweep through everyone to make sure everyone is ready for tomorrow. It's going to be something special.

Lazurite: Alright, still just a little confused.

R: You're talking to a sapphire, being confused is how you know its working.

Zircon: For someone who claims to be of White's court, you have a stunning lack of ability to know your place.

Olive: R, stop intentionally riling up Zircon.

R: I'm not.

Olive: I'm sure. Zircon, calm down before you give yourself a crack. You've probably got paperwork to go through.

Zircon: You're only right because I rarely don't. Ceylon, please keep me informed about what more is needed from me.

[Zircon has signed off]

R: You still coming over to help with Ceylon's other little project?

Olive: Yes, I'll be there shortly, just need to finish up here. I'd be done already if I hadn't been haranged into responding here.

Lazurite: Sorry, you're usually better at stopping arguments than me.

Olive: No need to apologize, more annoyed at the situation than you specifically.

[Olive has signed off]

Olive shut the communicator down and collected her tools. She had intended to finish up the work on her project, but figured that she only got so many opportunities to visit R, and wasn't sure how many would be left after whatever was going to happen tomorrow.  
(

* * *

)  
Lazurite got up from the communicator, looking around at the desolate rocky planet she had been tasked with dealing with.

The purpose of a Lapis Lazuli in the mold of Homeworld was to use their control over water to terraform alien planets in preparation for an invasion.

Lazurite, though, had been here far, far longer than she should have been. There was only one of her kind here, and not nearly enough water to work with.

It would have taken a team of six Lapis Lazulies half a century to terraform the entire planet by themselves. There was too little water and too much rock that was far too solid.

And Homeworld, pressed for resources after the rebellion on earth, had sent a single one to this planet, alone, to sort it out. Not entirely alone perhaps. They'd given her a Desert Glass to help, the gem tool able to extend its powers to the sand around it and control it the same way she did with water.

The problem being that very little of the planet was actually sand; the majority just solid, dense stone that needed to be broken down into sand before Desert Glass could use it.

"The Diamonds don't even really care about this planet," Lazurite had said to the pale bluish green gemstone on the ground while it worked, "They just wanted to keep up an appearance of business as usual. They picked a planet at random and probably don't even remember that I'm here."

That had been a couple hundred years back, shortly after she'd learned that, while a tool, the Desert Glass could still understand her. Lazurite couldn't help but laugh at the memory of how she'd jumped away in fear when Desert Glass had first tried to communicate, using the sand grains to spell out words on the ground.

Lazurite had always assumed that the gems that Homeworld used for tools weren't sentient, and the knowledge that they were just as intelligent and alive as herself was… troubling.

Given she was on a planet at the edge of the galaxy, had been for slightly over a millenia and likely would be for another several, she opted to just not think about it and be glad she had someone to talk to. Mind you, that was before the gift from Ceylon had crash landed on the planet.

How exactly the sapphire had rigged up the carrier satellite to impact the planet without damaging the communicator inside, Lazurite couldn't begin to understand. Well, she could. Future vision. What she couldn't get was why. There was something she was planning for, Lazurite knew.

'You sure its a good idea to follow this?' Desert Glass had asked in the sand, 'could be something to do with the rebellion.'

Lazurite scoffed, "The rebels were all destroyed. I don't know what she wants, but if it means keeping myself sane, I don't mind helping."

From there, Lazurite had followed Ceylon's instructions sent to here now and then. Find something or someone you would take with you anywhere if you could and trusted.

That was easy, Desert Glass was the only thing she really had. Training was… a bit stranger. With no weapon, something other gems were able to summon at will, Lazurite was left to train her water powers and flight with her water formed wings, and what she was training for was left unsaid.

She could only assume some kind of fighting, but Lapis Lazulies weren't used for battle, so she was left confused. But much like the communicators arrival at all, Lazurite found it much better not to question it.

Especially since her third instruction had been to get to know the other gems linked up to the communicators, which she'd been attempting to do since. Currently, she let out a sigh of relief as everyone signed out. She was happy to talk, but Zircon could be… frustrating, moreso when R was present.

She was curious what kind of gem R was as well, but not nearly as intense as some of the others. Ceylon brought more gems into the chat before Lazurite could go though, giving the same checks on them.

[River has signed on]

[Pink Agate has signed on]

[Maxixe has signed on]

Desert Glass made a message in the sand for Lazurite to keep calm, seeming to know from the expression on her face that Maxixe was on.

She had believed that gems within the same court would be more able to get along than others. But that aqua marine seemed determined to prove her otherwise.

Maxixe: Lazing around again are we?

Pink Agate: Maxixe, what have we talked about.

Maxixe: I know that you've talked a lot about 'not being rude' or some such, but personally I don't see how I can be rude to someone lower in the hierarchy.

River: It does seem rather needless..

Maxixe: Oh like you've got room to talk. Where do you get off not using your gem name? You, R, and worst of all this 'Caroline' are driving me to my last nerves.

River: I told you, my Morganite chose the name for me.

Pink Agate: Will you pipe down and at least let Ceylon do her checks before you start going off like that?

Maxixe: Oh fine. What exactly are we doing here?

Lazurite: Actually.. Ceylon left right before you all signed on.

Maxixe: WHAT!? What an absolute waste of valuable time.

[Maxixe has signed off]

Pink Agate: I'm sorry you two have to put up with all of that.

Lazurite: At least the energy is a change up from the nothing that goes on around here.

River: It's certainly.. Interesting.

Pink Agate: Well don't you worry, if I can ever find that aqua marine face to face I'll make sure she learned to behave.

Lazurite: heh, thank you.

Pink agate: Don't worry about it, its what Agates are for.

[Pink Agate has signed off]

[River has signed off]

[Caroline has signed on]

Lazurite's eyes lit up a bit at seeing Caroline on. Odd as the name she went by was, and vague as she was about her gem type, Lazurite always preferred talking to her to any of the others.

She… seemed to get what it was like, being alone for so long.

Before she could start talking though, Desert Glass reminded her that she needed to get back to work. Lazurite looked from the screen, to her Desert Glass, to the barren rocky landscape, and back to the screen.

"It's gonna take eons. A couple minutes won't hurt."

Desert Glass shifted the sand around them, presumably trying to find an argument; but couldn't think of a decent one, so went inert for the moment and let her have her time to chat.  
(

* * *

)  
White Zircon set down her communicator and returned to her screens.

When she had been given such a device by a sapphire, she had been expecting something very, very different.

Not that she minded the peridot or aqua marine, the former was at least professional and the later was actively amusing to speak with now and again, but some of the others…

"To put it nicely," she said to her little helpers as the two fluttered over to her from their hiding hole between the walls, "They rather lowered my expectations for the value of a sapphire's attention."

"Oh you're exaggerating." "And being a bit mean." Heaven and Earth said respectively, the geodes sitting on either shoulder.

Zircon rolled her eyes. Useful as her companions were, and as attached as she refused to admit she was to them, they could weigh on her patience from time to time.

"Perhaps, but some of their behaviors are just inexcusable." White Zircon could feel the 2x eye roll from her helpers as she focused on the floating screens around her, collecting information on her current case.

An Amethyst from the Glisa Colony had reportedly gone rogue and lead an uprising in the name of Rose Quartz, the fallen rebellion leader from Earth.

They had an Amethyst in custody who was claiming not to be the rogue and needed it determined if she was the right one or not, as if they had the wrong quartz, it would mean shattering a perfectly good soldier and lowering their guard with a rebel still on the loose.

Zircon had barely gotten through the first few paragraphs of evidence when the communicator started blinking again.

She'd had the good sense to mute the device, but couldn't help but check it whenever there were in fact messages to be read.

Partly out of natural Zirconian obsessive need to have all the information about a given situation, and partly through hoping one of the more infuriating gems she'd yet to fully get her mind around would slip up while thinking she wasn't reading and drop some hint.

Inspecting the messages, she found three other gems on, presumably having been through the same Ceylon checks as the others.

And oh lucky lucky, two of them were aforementioned enigmas.

Jade: Still unsure what this is all about, but I'm ready. As ready as I can be suppose.

Spinel: Not sure why I wasn't told to do anything. The rest of you all had something to get or find or do.

Jade: Perhaps being on a Nephrite ship means you've got everything you need already? Between the crew and the captain, you're pretty well guarded.

Spinel: Maybe. Might just be that being four foot high and having one eye's left her a little…. Short sighted!

Corundum: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

White Zircon's groan of annoyance made her geodes giggle at her pain. Annoying as the, or indeed any in Zircon's opinion, Green Spinel's jokes were, it was the corundum that threw her the most. Particularly their being called strictly 'corundum.'

A corundum could be quite a wide variety of gems. Given how easily amused she was, Zircon could only assume she was a Ruby, and yet she claimed to be from White's court.

Zircon was fairly certain that ceylon had sought her out because both of the other White Diamond gems in this little group she had set up were so very, very off.

And then there was Jade. Zircon had kept notes on their conversations, and while she at least consistently answered questions online R, Corundum, or Caroline, the answers Jade gave seemed to contradict one another.

Based on when she was asked, she was from either Blue or Yellow's court, either a very active or rather reclusive aristocrat who did quite a lot or very little who either preferred listening to music or dancing to it.

There was something very, very off with a good third of the group the Ceylon had set up. Perhaps she was aware of it. Her future vision should have let her know if something was off.

White Zircon shut the chat to avoid seeing anymore of Green Spinel's jokes or Corundum's responses to them. She rubbed her temples for a moment to calm herself, the presence of her geodes helping with that more than she liked to admit. She refocused herself on the documents.

Yes the sapphire's 'event', whatever it was, would be starting by the next cycle, but the Amethyst's trial would be before then, and she was excellent at multitasking regardless.


	2. Smiles; Warm, Smug, and Sly

Pink Lace Agate sat down against the cold metal of the empty corridor.

She hated how empty it was. She thought she'd get used to it over time, but it had been thousands of years and it still bugged her.

The Agate grit her teeth, forcing herself not to think about it. The more she thought about it, the more upset she'd get about it. It didn't matter if the building was empty she told herself, Pink's court was still alive and thriving.

She smiled as one of the little doors in the walls opened up, a little Pebble poking her head out. Ah, there she was, proof that the place wasn't quite so empty.

She hopped down into Lace's hands, "Agate, Agate, look what I learned to do!" The Pebble said excitedly, holding out her arm and showing how the stone shifted into a small blade.

All of the Pebbles could shift parts of their body to perform various tasks, hence making such good helpers. But this one had taken quite a bit longer to learn how to do it, and quite a bit of help from Pink Agate. Not that she minded of course.

The Pebbles were the only thing left of her Diamond... Pink Lace shook the thought out of her head, and smiled wide, "That's great Pebble! You're getting so strong." She said with a giggle.

Pebble beamed at the praise, and took some practice slashes at the air with her stone blade arm before returning it to normal. "Where have you been?" She asked, "Going on missions again?"

Pink lace shook her head, "No.. the Diamonds have no need for a Pink Agate on the colony planets. But they do want me to keep training other gems. Yellow Diamond was unsure about it, but Blue seems convinced that with a little help, we can get gems to go beyond their limits, if only briefly."

The Pebble gave a soft gasp, "Does that mean the Rubies are coming back?" She questioned excitedly.

Pink Lace gave a nod, "Certainly does. They'll be over shortly for more training. And a little fun, but the Diamonds don't need to know about that part." She said, the two both giggling. "Are the Rubies gonna play the game with you?" Pebble asked.

Pink Lace paused, then shrugged, "Not quite sure. Thats all up to Ceylon. Still not sure what kind of game it is, but I'm sure the Rubies would like it."

Pebble nodded, "I wanna play it to!" She said with an eager jump in the Agate's palm, landing on her back in her hands. The pink gem giggled once again, her spirits lifted by the little stone creature. Her attention was caught as she suddenly heard the beeping of her communicator; her special one.

As an Agate, she'd had access to more advanced research and leisure technology than other gems might, but for some reason Ceylon had felt it necessary to gift her and indeed everyone in the group a new one, one that operated on an untraceable line.

She had been expecting some kind of rebellion talk, and after what the Rose Quartz had done to her Diamond, had been ready to shut such conversation down.

But no treason had taken place. Normal conversations and talk of a game from a Sapphire. She looked over the messages.

Caroline: Why do you keep asking?  
Olive: I'm a Peridot, and a certified kindergartner. I can't help but be curious when a gem doesn't admit what they are. I wouldn't have to pry if you'd just tell me.  
Corundum: Whas it matter?  
Olive: 1. It's spelled 'what's', or 'what does it' if you want to be grammatically correct. 2. You would say that. Corundum: I wood?  
Olive: Ugh. 1. It's 'would.' And 2. Yes, you would. I've never heard of a White Corundum before, not a Gem kind anyway.  
Caroline: So you don't know as much as you think you do huh?  
Olive: I've sussed out that you're a Quartz gem, I'm just undecided on what kind, and more so why you're so quiet about it.  
Caroline: What? What makes you think I'm a quartz?  
Olive: Oh please, its written all over you. How you talk (or type as the case may be) and what you talk about. Definitely a quartz soldier. I'm leaning towards Carnelian, or maybe a Fire Agate. Definitely a Pink Court gem.  
Jade: Oh hush up Olive. Ceylon told you it doesn't matter what kind of gems we are. We were chosen for the game, that's all that matters.  
Caroline: Exactly. You never grill R for what kind of gem she is.  
Olive: I have personal reasons for not requiring that information. Lace couldn't help notice how long it had taken for Olive to respond with that last one, and figured she'd interject.  
Pink Agate: Everyone calm down. Jade, thank you for keeping the peace in my absence.  
Jade: A pleasure.  
Pink Agate: Olive, we know its just curiosity, but its a unnecessary and rude.  
Pink Lace could see from the spinning circles that Olive was about to respond, and so quickly preempted.  
Pink Agate: That wasn't a discussion point, it was me telling you.  
Olive: Oh fine. At least for now.  
Corundum: Hehehehe.  
Olive: Must you type out your amusement?  
Corundum: its fun XP  
Olive: Xp?  
Corundum: Its a face ^-^  
Olive: You are an odd thing.  
Pink Lace: Oh just leave her be. Caroline, much as it doesn't matter, if you are a Pink Court, just know you aren't the only one here. Pink Lace didn't get to see the response. She was stirred from the conversation by the mechanical sound of the door opening.

Seemed her Ruby recruits were here. Pebble had moved up to Lace's shoulder, bouncing excitedly as the Agate closed the communicator and got up to get to work.

(

* * *

)

Maxixe was fine with missions and weird alien planets.

She was an Aqua Marine. She could handle any kind of mission on any kind of planet. She could even stomach the bizarre dealings of the sapphire who'd linked her up to these other gems, mostly misfits though they were.

What was steadily chipping away at her patience like an angle grinder was her assigned Topaz taking so long to clear out the hostiles and leaving her in the ship with nothing to do what watch aforementioned misfit gems chatter.

The Topaz insisted it wasn't a big enough problem for her to concern herself with it, but Maxixe couldn't help but feel a hot frustration burning inside her at what she was certain was an implied insult.

She was an Aqua Marine after all. They were prideful Gems, and for good reasons of course. And she required some form of stimulation to not crack from sheer boredom.

With a sigh, she inspected the chatter of the gems.

Spinel: And then I said, 'Emerald, lets be honest, you only hate fusion because none of the other Emeralds wanna pair up with you!'

Maxixe's bored frown curled at the edges with amusement, only to morph into a scowl at the sight of the response from the others.

Lazurite: That.. sounds pretty mean.  
Pink Agate: Very mean.  
Spinel: Mean green joking machine as always, heh.  
Lazurite: Not what I meant.  
Maxixe: And you were 'meant' to waste so much time. How's progress on terraforming coming along? Still centuries behind schedule?  
Spinel: Aren't Lapis Lazulies thin and light? Why so much wait?

Maxixe laughed at that one. The Green Spinel was always amusing to chat with, much as the others attempted to hold her back.

R: Your jokes would be a lot funnier if they weren't always so harsh.  
Maxixe: And you'd be less of an sorry excuse for a Gem if you'd just fess up to what you are, but we don't always get what we want now do we?  
Pink Agate: Max, hush.

Maxixe hesitated before she responded, cheeks burning with the flustering she always got from that infuriating Agate. She was never quite certain how to respond to her. Something innate to the cut of gems, Maxixe was convinced.

Maxixe: It's Maxixe. Please keep to actual names instead of foolish codes.  
R: Nothing wrong with a little mystery Maxi.  
Maxixe: Don't you get started to. Look, the sapphire hasn't said its time to start yet, and I'm sure all of you have jobs you should be getting to.  
Lazurite: What about you?

Lazurite was saved from the absolute vitriol that Maxixe was certain she was about to unleash by the sound of the ship opening.

Maxixe: As a matter of fact I do. My Topaz has returned, and now I can get back to important things. Good day.

Maxixe shut the communicator and let out a sigh to calm herself as the Topaz entered.

Her body and weapon-a massive weight like mallet with heads on either end-were covered in what Maxixe assumed to be the bodily liquids of the native lifeforms of the planet they had been sent to. Mindless creatures.

The dual mallet vanished into the gems on the Topaz's hands. "About time you got back." Maxixe said with a sigh, "Lets get going, I'm losing my mind stuck in here."

The Topaz nodded and went to get the ship moving without a word.

Typical, Maxixe thought, so smug just because she's a fusion.

(

* * *

)

Green Spinel giggled to herself as she typed. Much as she didn't like being below deck, she had fun chatting and making jokes to the others; particularly Corundum.

Maybe just because she was an easy target for jokes, even for basic puns. Whenever the crew muscled her below deck, she could always pull out the communicator that the Ceylon had given her.

Only her Emerald knew about it, and she'd been told not to let any of the Nephrites know she had been given a gift from a sapphire.

Emerald always got really twitchy when she saw the communicator... so perhaps it was best if she stayed below deck to use it.

Corundum: You're so funny Spinel ^-^  
Spinel: Heh, well it's what I was made for. Literally.  
Corundum: XD Spinel: Well it's good I've got someone here who's a good audience.  
River: I didn't mean to upset you, I just.. don't like when you make fun of my Morganite.  
R: Or her name.  
Spinel: They're just jokes, come on you're both fragile as mica flakes.  
R: I just think you should know when to stop making jokes is all. Not everyone finds the same things funny.

The Green Spinel frowned at that. Several of the gems on the Ceylon communicator had mentioned this, but she always had a hard time wrapping her mind around it. She supposed she understood it in principle.

Her Emerald loved it when she performed for the crew, making jokes on the spot; usually making fun of the one of the Nephrites or some other gem they had encountered recently. She'd practically crack herself laughing.

But the Nephrites... not so much.

And yet she could get smiles and chuckles whenever she wasn't directly making fun of someone. She was curious why, but ultimately making the Nephrites laugh weren't why she was here.

It had been the Emerald who'd earned her, and it was up to the Emerald whether she stayed on board the ship or got tossed out the space lock. She sighed, letting her natural smile waver slightly.

It was effort sometimes to hold. But it returned when she saw Corundum typing. It was never effort with her at least.

Corundum: Ceylon said well all B playing the game togethr. Will U have more jokes while we play? MayB we can work togethr ^-^  
Spinel: Heh, you know it tiny-shiny. Not sure what kind of game it is, but fun and funny aren't too far apart; in spelling if nothing else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: Ref pics for all characters can be viewed on the Sinfulnature1123 patreon page, perfectly free to view.


	3. Distance, Rules, and Standards

Caroline sat in her garden, looking around at the overgrown and quite frankly hostile plantlife. 

How exactly the life here had grown so aggressively and violently was a mystery. At least it was to outsiders. Caroline knew it well and bitterly. 

Much as she hated those spiky coiling flower bearing thorn bushes, she couldn’t leave them. More actually, she knew that she shouldn’t leave them. 

Being a quartz, especially one armed with an axe, it would be a trivial matter to cut through the aggressive organic life. But if she did that, it was possible that Homeworld, or the dregs of the Crystal gems, or the corrupted monsters that gems on either side were reduced to, might find her. 

Quartz soldiers were meant to be powerful, sturdy gems. But there was no place in the world for a rose quartz, not anymore. 

Homeworld wanted all of them bubbled or shattered after THE Rose Quartz started her rebellion. 

No sense risking another, never mind the fact that none of the rose quartz soldiers-the defective that started the war notwithstanding-would never do such a thing. 

Of course, seeing how Homeworld, how the Diamonds, would treat their own loyal soldiers over nothing but a shared gem cut… Caroline shook her head, laying back on the soft ground. 

Sometimes she wondered if it really was a miracle that she’d escaped, or if it would be better to be in a bubble, or in shards. She wouldn’t have to spend her infinite time dwelling on what had happened that way. 

Better than being reduced to one of those mindless monsters she supposed, if only barely. Her thoughts were often poison but they were at least actual thoughts. 

And after round about four or five thousand years of madnessing nothing, sprinkled with a few curious attempts to explore beyond the hostile thorny foliage that Rebel Leader Rose Quartz had left behind that always ended in panicking and retreat, Ceylon found her. 

Specifically a delivery drone Ceylon had sent, delivering with it a special communicator. She supposed it was silly to wonder how a sapphire had found her, but it was still baffling. 

If she could, why had the homeworld sapphires not? What had Ceylon been looking for that allowed her to find a lost, half mental earth borne rose quartz? 

Ceylon had refused to answer, but thankfully also refused to tell any of the other gems what she was, allowing her to go by whatever nickname she so chose. 

Caroline, opting for a twinge of humor to brighten things up, had chosen her name as a pun; naming herself for the earth plant with which her gem type shared a name; roses. 

If White Zircon knew such a plant existed she’d connect the dots immediately. 

She and Olive had been swapping notes trying to figure out what she was for years now, but thankfully had consistently come up short. She wasn’t entirely certain how much she trusted them. 

Well, save for Ceylon and Lazurite of course. It had taken Caroline awhile to determine that Ceylon was being genuine and this wasn't all some elaborate set up to catch and have her shattered, but she trusted her. 

And Lazurite… it took awhile for Caroline to realize exactly how much she trusted her. She just seemed to… get it, to understand what it was like to be alone. 

The communicator beeped just as the pink quartz gem was starting to dwell. She sat up and reached out to the device to see what was being discussed. 

Olive: I thought you said you were going to stop asking about R. 

Zircon: And you said we’d both stop musing on what precisely Caroline and Emery are, we all say a lot of things. 

Olive: That’s different. 

Zircon: Care to illuminate me on how exactly? 

Olive: I’m a Peridot, I’m literally made to try and figure out stuff like this, I can’t help it. 

Zircon: A delightful display of assaging responsibility, but you see, I’m a Zircon, determining what’s what is just as etched into my gem as curiosity into yours. I won’t lie about my intentions to learn what’s going on with these unnamed, but I’m at least willing to be up front about it. 

Lazurite: Um, Caroline logged on. 

Carolie: hi. 

Olive and Zircon both went quiet for a bit, likely trying to figure out how they could backpedal while still winning their argument. 

Given Zircon was a lawyer, Caroline had her money on them, but Olive was remarkably blunt and scrappy so it could go either way really. 

When it became clear that both were currently spinning their wheels and likely would be for awhile, Caroline went to a sidebar with Lazurite. 

Caroline: So they’re still on it huh? 

Lazurite: Yeah, sorry I tried to get them to stop but you know how they are. 

Caroline: I don’t really mind to be honest. 

Well, half honest. It was kind of fun to her watching them pick apart what she said and how she said it to determine what gem she was; but she could still remember the soft sickness she’d felt in her gem when they narrowed it down to quartz. 

Not that she could let that show, they’d pick up on that like an earthling predator picking up the scent of earthling red life fluid. 

Caroline: How come you’ve never gotten curious about it? 

Lazurite: Eh.. I spent a few millennia talking to a Desert Glass, I don’t think it really matters what kind of gem you are. Not that I’m not a little curious, just don’t really see the point in harassing you about it. 

Caroline: Fair enough I guess. How is DG by the way? 

Lazurite: Still cold and pragmatic as ever. Might be not having a physical form doing that, not sure. 

Olive: Actually Desert Glass are more often than not somewhat devoid of expressive reactions even when feeling emotions quite intensely. 

Caroline: Oh hey, they’re back. 

Zircon: Didn’t go anywhere, was just getting my notes in order. Now, I’ve just got a few questions for you. 

Caroline rolled her eyes, ‘Here we go again.’  
(

* * *

)   
River was never sure how to feel about the silence in the spire. 

It wasn’t uncomfortable, and allowed her to focus whenever she needed to help her Morganite find something, but there was always something about the lack of sound that… rattled her. 

She couldn’t put her finger on why. She’d attempted to ask her Morganite about it, as it wasn’t her own place as a Pearl to determine such a thing, and she had simply shrugged it off with no real answer. 

River wasn’t surprised. Her Morganite was a great thinker, musing on the true nature of stars and non-living light. She had little time for such trivial thoughts as a pearl’s feelings on noise or lack thereof. Some of the friends she’d made from the Ceylon communicator seemed upset when she talked like that. 

R, Emery, even Ceylon herself or Pink Lace Agate sometimes. She wasn’t certain why at first, nor were some of the others. Mind you, she always wasn’t sure why some of them were so surprised by the affection she spoke of her Morganite with. 

Even Olive seemed to react with this same surprise upon learning that said affection didn’t come from her customization setting. She showed affection to her Morganite because her Morganite deserved it. 

She was a wonderful, intelligent, and kind being. 

She’d tried to explain it to the others, but none seemed to understand or agree. They asked all kinds of odd questions. 

R: If you’re only meant to be her assistant pearl, why did she make you learn to fight? 

River had learned to summon a gem weapon, a bo staff, and fight to defend her Morganite, just in case. 

She wanted to protect her of course. Other gems could work as guards of course, but as a pearl, she wasn’t quite so valuable, and thus it made sense to let her handle mishaps wherever possible. 

Pink Agate: Why does she leave you alone for so long in that spire? 

Morganites were important gems, and had to devote their time to thinking through the non-military or engineering based issues that the empire faced. 

She required time alone to think properly, and it made no sense to compromise that important, potentially critical thinking time over the discomforts of a pearl. 

Zircon: Why exactly does she call you River? 

Admittedly she was quite fond of answering that one, as it just went to show that her Morganite did care about her, despite what the others thought. 

River was a Purple Pearl. Simply saying Pearl was far too bland, and Purple didn’t roll off the tongue quite right. 

So she had settled on the nickname River, indicating the fresh water that had been required for her creation. 

Most of the gems seemed to find this answer satisfying, and Caroline had seemed to actively appreciate such a name. 

But Olive… 

Olive: So to be clear, she only gave you a name so she could stand out as having a uniquely named Pearl? Or was it so she wouldn’t have to say a word she wasn’t fond of. 

Neither of course she had told Olive. The very thought was absurd. And even if it were true, it hardly mattered. 

She was a pearl after all. The very fact that she was being allowed to communicate with them at all was a testament to how much her Morganite trusted her. 

Green Spinel: Are you… sure that’s really about trust? 

River: What do you mean? Green Spinel: You mentioned that it came from Ceylon right? 

River: Of course. 

Green Spinel: Yeah… it sounds to me more like she just doesn't want to get in trouble with a higher ranking gem. 

River: How can you speak so cruelly of such a kind gem?

Green Spinel: ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ never met her, so I can’t say for sure what she’s like, but a lot of what she does sounds like what my Emerald does with extra steps and more words to make it sound better. 

Lazurite: I can’t really judge without knowing it for sure. 

Maxixe: Sounds perfectly healthy to me. She’s a pearl remember, fancy name, fancy Ceylon connection or not, no reason not to treat her as one. 

Pink Agate: Maxixe. 

Maxixe: What? It’d be disrespectful otherwise. 

River: Thank you Maxixe. I’m glad someone is able to somewhat understand. I must leave now, my Morganite is calling me. 

River quickly shut the communicator and hurried out to her Morganite. She was sitting at one of the spires many tables, star maps scattered about the surface with holographic diagrams hovering above. 

It seems she had been attempting yet again to solve the issue of how to reach a proper warp speed without burning through so much energy. 

River started to ask what Morganite needed her for, but a casual hand silenced the question, “Was tired of waiting for you to return. Come, stand here.” 

Morganite gestured to the spot next to where she was sitting at the table. River moved over, standing next to her Morganite as she returned to work. She remained silent as she watched.  
(

* * *

)   
Yellow-Green Jade sighed as she heard the communicator shake slightly as she sat down. A gem of her status didn’t have an incredible amount of difficult work, but they did still have duties to attend to.   
Even if they didn’t require sleep like organic beings, a few straight days of attending to anything, even just aristocratic matters, was enough to wear out anyone, and rest was in order. 

Resisting the urge to simply toss the communicator out the window and be done with it-she was certain a well aimed toss would land the device outside the dwelling block of one of those bitter old Demantoids and leave the shrapnel for them to clean up-she activated it and checked what discussion was so important as to interrupt the precious little-if lonely-peace time she had. 

Maxixe: Oh so now you decide to join us. 

Jade: Could just as easily never shown up. 

Zircon: Now now, no need for snippiness. We were just wondering if you had been contacted by the Ceylon recently. Herself notwithstanding, you are the highest ranking gem in this little set up as far as we know, unless R or Caroline are secretly upper crusts. 

Jade: I’m not certain rank has anything to do with it if I’m honest. Ceylon doesn’t seem concerned with status. 

Maxixe: I could tell that from her letting on a pearl and what I’m convinced are three different defectives. 

Jade: hasn’t Agate already told you to hush up this cycle? Were you just waiting for the clock to tick over so she’d be away and you could start carrying on again? It’s old Maxixe, very, very old. 

Maxixe’s icon began to spin as she presumably a rant of some variety. 

Zircon: Odd how your personality shifts. 

Jade: Hm? 

Zircon: Depending on when you respond, your level of aggression seems to fluctuate. Cycle before last you were perfectly docile with Maxixe’s ramblings. Well… not directly outspoken against them at least. 

Yellow-Green bit the inside of her mouth at this. 

Jade: There’s just only so much I can take of it at any given time is all. A bit like changing the oil in a ship, every so often I need to vent if I’m to remain civil. 

Yellow-Jade wracked her mind for how to sound like a blue court gem, or maybe a white just to mess with their heads. 

She would have to speak with Forest.  
.  
.  
.  
Forest Jade was on her way to her dwelling block when the communicator dinged with a message. 

It wasn’t uncommon for a jade to have such a device, so she felt no nervousness checking it and responding in public. 

Olive: Jade already said that there’s no correlation between rank and the information granted. 

River: Oh, is that what Maxixe’s rant was about? 

Olive: I believe so. She didn’t notice Jade and Zircon had logged off some time before she finally sent it. 

Olive: Apologies to bringing you back Jade, carry on. 

Forest suppressed a wry chuckle at this, scrolling up to see Yellow-Green’s conversation with Maxixe and Zircon. 

It really was amusing how quickly Maxixe went to anger. Forest couldn’t help but wonder how much of it was real and how much was a put on. 

Given how much she knew about putting on a show, she was confident that quite a bit was; perhaps more than Maxixe herself was aware of. Something to discuss with Yellow-Green she supposed.  
.  
.  
.  
“A bit late tonight,” Yellow-Green said, “Had to cover with Maxixe and Zircon.” Forest nodded, “I saw, sorry. Planning a gala for an unimaginably picky Pyrope, miracle I’m even bad now. How’s the station been?” 

“Dreary as ever,” Yellow-Green responded with a chuckle, “Honestly they can run it themselves with an era one peridot and a citrine on watch. Somewhat convinced they only keep us jades around for the view.” 

“Hard to argue with their logic at least.” Forest Jade commented, a smile curling at the edge of her lips. Yellow-Green grit her teeth to hold in the giggle that had been about to escape. 

Forest let it out for her as she approached, “Relax, I did a little looking around before I got back, the coast is clear. The other gems are all inside and the drones won’t be around for inspection for a few hours at least.” 

Yellow-Green grinned properly at this, and gave a palm clap to activate their Song Stone. The living gem musical device had cost quite a bit, but its melodies were well worth it. 

“Then what are we doing so far apart~?” She questioned, despite the two being less than a foot apart at this point/ forest Jade smiled again, taking Yellow-Green’s hands. 

The two began to dance gently to the stone’s music, and less than a minute later, two became one. Imperial Jade continued to dance, together happily. 

The two jades were only able to be themselves properly once every few weeks or so. They couldn’t risk being found out, and took every measure possible to prevent suspicion. 

They kept to their own lives and tasks, didn’t communicate outside of what would be normal conversation for two jades of disparate courts, and even on the Ceylon communicators, took specific turns with specific gems at specific times to minimize the chance either would notice the little differences between the two, and thus wouldn’t be able to catch on that the only time they genuinely engaged the conversation was as one. 

Imperial Jade was just as curious about what Ceylon wanted with them as the others, whereas Yellow-Green and Jade couldn’t afford to be. And she’d get back to the conversations with the others… as soon as she was finished enjoying this moment. 

They’d been apart far too long this time. 


	4. Hidden

Ceylon sat in her chambers, contemplating. 

As a Sapphire, contemplation was really her only purpose of course. But Ceylon's future sight saw not the path to the glory of the Diamond's conquest. 

For eons now the little blue gem had watched the world as it ended, or at least ended as they knew it. She believed they were a defect for a time, mistaken visions to be ignored. But as time grew, Ceylon came to understand what they really were. 

She looked up, her movement stirring the three Carnelians, her quartz soldier guards. 

All three looked to her in near perfect unison, “A problem my Sapphire?” The nearest to her asked. 

“No,” Ceylon said, “But I need to make vital communications now. If you wouldn't mind.” She said. 

The Carnelians nodded, all holding their arms in the standard sign of respect before leaving the chamber. Ceylon's lips curled into a smile as she watched her solider guards go. 

She enjoyed watching them of course, more in her visions than in person. In visions she could see how they behaved when she wasn't around. 

Much less stiff, much less rigid.. it was hard for her to fully come to grips with. She'd come to terms with the fact eventually that many gems seemed able to experience a wide variety of feelings, and display them in an almost incalculable amount of different ways. It was fascinating, if maddeningly inconsistent. 

She continued to watch the tall, strong guards leave her chambers, small smile at them suppressed quite well. 

When she was alone, she moved to get her private communication device. It had been a trial even for her to come into, not to mention all the others she had needed to find and send out. But it would all be worth it soon, she was certain. 

Ceylon: Prepared to begin our.. shall we call it a mission?   
Lazurite: I guess so.. I don't really have a weapon like you said we'd need.   
Ceylon: I said it would greatly help, but your powers will suffice I'm sure. You've obtained someone or something you trust to be of help to you?   
Lazurite: That was an easy one, I've only really got one thing in the world aside from this com device.  
Zircon: What luck you have. It was utter torture deciding.   
Lazurite: I figured it would obviously be your Geodes.   
Zircon: Oh, but of course. The torture came from deciding which of the two. It seemed dreadfully unsure to pick only one before our gracious sapphire assured me both were viable. A weapon or tool was much trickier, but thankfully I managed to make do.   
Ceylon: Excellent. R?   
R: Nearly ready. Weapon's been ready for ages, putting the finishing touches on the helper item, Olive is on her way over to help with the special request you were making.   
Ceylon: Zircon I assure you reading too deeply into every little thing R says will lead only to madness for you specifically.   
Zircon: Deepest apologies my sapphire. R: You've got to show me a way to do that.   
Ceylon: Simply a matter of reading the odds. 

Ceylon paused after sending this, musing on the statement for a moment. It was true she supposed. All sapphire visions were. Sapphires saw only the mostly likely possible outcome, but there could still be variations. 

There was a non-zero chance she had simply gone quite spectacularly mad some time ago. It.. was not her first time considering this. And as all previous times, the visions of her Carnelian guards drove the thought away. 

Surely she couldn't be mad. Even a mad sapphire would have limits to what she could imagine, and it stopped far before the things she found herself seeing of those rowdy red gems. 

Ceylon realized how cold the room was suddenly, as her physical form had heated up quite considerably it seems. Odd.   
(

* * *

)  
White Corundum... that name didn't... really sound right, but she supposed its what everyone called her. At least as far as she could remember.. but that wasn't saying much. 

She tended to forget things a lot, and wasn't really sure why. Looking around the room, she couldn't recall really what or where it was, nor why she'd never seen anything outside of it. It was practically featureless, more of an enormous white box than a room. 

She hadn't been able to find any exits or paths that would lead elsewhere, but it was rare that she found the energy to look for them. She knew there had to be some way in, both because.. well, she was there, and because the communicator was. 

Also the bubbles. Looking up, White Corundum squinted at the pale white bubbles suspended in the air containing various gemstones. 

A lot of them were in pieces, suspended seemingly mid explosion within the bubble. Others looked like a combination of several gem stones that had been welded together. 

White Corundum attempted to think through what they could be as often as she'd tried to remember how she got where she was, but it made her head ache, and she always found herself laying back down, either to simply rest or to talk on the communicator. 

Pink Agate was nice to talk to. She always seemed very nice, always asking questions. 

Not the same questions as Zircon or Olive though. Agate was.. trying to help her? Maybe help her remember things better, she wasn't certain. 

But she preferred talking to Spinel. She'd never seen the green gem before, but she always found a way to make her laugh, even when she was deep in her confusion and tired. 

Staring at the screen, White Corundum realized that she had indeed forgotten something while she had been talking with Green Spinel. She wasn't sure what though...   
(

* * *

)  
R: For, I think the fifth time now, it's none of your business.   
Maxixe: I'm an Aquamarine, my business is whatever I like it to be.   
R: You're the only gem in this chat that seems to think that.   
Maxixe: That's because you're all mental and defective!   
R: Insulting a sapphire like that? How disrespectful. I'll have to report this immediately.   
Maxixe: Not her, that isn't what I meant and you know it.   
R: And you know Ceylon couldn't begin to care. Worst I'd do is report it to Pink Lace; but then, that might end up being even worse for you huh?   
Maxixe: I assure you I have no idea to what you are referring. 

A good twenty minutes passed between the last message and Maxixe's response. A snort echoed through the cavern, and her response was met with a simple R: Whatever. She'd have liked to put more effort into it, but she was otherwise preoccupied now. 

A knock echoed through the cave as though in answer to the snort, and a few moments later, Olive had arrived. 

“Sorry it took me so long, there's no fast way to subtly deactivate security robanoids.” The peridot said as she entered, “How goes the progress?” 

Rhodochrosite rolled her eyes, all three of them, at this, “Why thanks, I've been lovely, how about you?” 

Olive sighed, “Sorry, just a little antsy. Gets riskier to come down here every time.” Rhodochrosite shrugged, “Well with any luck, this will be the last time before Ceylon's little activity.” 

“That's part of what's making me antsy.” Olive said. 

She didn't elaborate further, and the fusion gem didn't make her. She had to deal with things at her own pace, and they did-in fact-have work to do. 

“Finished the statue, so it's just Ceylon's personal item and we're good to go.” 

Olive nodded, taking out the schematics she'd been working on, “Still not sure why you chose a Moon Goddess stature. If it were a traditional one, with its gravity locking, I could kind of see the point I suppose, but that's just stone.” Olive said, indicating the expertly carved statue of the Moon Goddess sitting not far from Rhodochrosite's main work bench. 

“I could explain it, but I'm not sure you'd totally understand.” She said. “Is it a fusion thing?” Olive asked immediately. 

Another 3x eyeroll combo. “No,” Rhodochrosite said, “It's a faith thing.” Olive stared at her as though she'd manifested a fourth eye. 

“Like I said.” Rhodochrosite chuckled, “Now come on, lets get to work and you can get back before anyone notices their leggy mechanic is missing.” 

Olive didn't respond more than returning Rhodochrosite's eyeroll. She always seemed to genuinely think comments like that were in reference to her gem placement, which Rhodochrosite couldn't help chuckling at.


	5. All Fun and Games

Pink Agate: So, how are you feeling?  
Corundum: Just.. ya know.  
Pink Agate: Heh.. not really, that's why I'm asking.  
Corundum: I know.. sorry. Thanks for checking up on me though ^-^ It helps me keep track of things when I talk to you guys.  
Pink Agate: Well I'm happy to help. Gonna have to be on the ball for whatever Ceylon is asking our help with. Not sure what it is, but from her, it must be pretty important.  
Corundum: Has to be if she managed to get something to me in here.  
Pink Agate: Yeah.. about that. Where exactly is 'in here' for you? You've mentioned it a few times now, but never really elaborated. Are you trapped somewhere.  
Corundum: No.. well I mean, maybe? I... it's hard to tell honestly. I can't really.. remember..  
Pink Agate: Would you like to talk through it?  
Pink Agate: Hello? 

Pink Lace Agate sighed. It had been a good hour or so, and whenever Corundum was gone for that long, it almost certainly meant she was off on one of her silent binges. 

She wished she knew what was wrong, that way she could help her out, but she didn't even know for sure if anything was wrong. For all Lace knew she could just be slightly weird and like that. 

But she didn't think so. Much as she didn't like Olive and Zircon and Maxixe getting uppity about Corundum, she had to agree that something was definitely wrong. 

“Is everything okay?” The voice of one of the Rubies Pink Lace had been tasked with training brought the Agate out of her thoughts, “Yes, apologies, was just checking on something.” She said. 

The Ruby nodded, heading back to the rest of her team, the five of them standing together, having seemingly lined up from shortest to tallest. Referring to them all as Ruby quickly became infuriating, and so, taking a page from some of her chat friends' book, decided to nickname them. 

Heel was waiting patiently, hands behind her back sheepishly at her teammates having gone up to Pink Lace. Hip, the Ruby who'd done so, was standing next to her with a smile, seeming utterly unaware. Next to her, Grip and Core were too busy whispering to one another, making each other laugh every so often, too have noticed anything had even been said. 

Lastly, Cheek simply rolled her eyes at Grip and Core's chatting, “Just fuse already, then you have all the talking you want without making so much noise.” 

The two slightly smaller-albeit the second and third tallest of the group-Rubies blushed slightly at this comment, but it brought a grin to Pink Lace's lips. 

“Well, it isn't fusion, but there is something that I'd like to show the five of you now,” She said, “Its.. not training exactly, but the Quartz soldiers do it all the time to keep their bodies relaxed.” 

Pink Lace left out that the quartz soldiers she was referring to were those from earth, and the 'activity' was one they had observed from the earthlings in Pink Diamond's Zoo. Doing so would just muddy the waters. 

“Don't worry, it'll be fun~”  
(

* * *

)  
Maxixe took a few gentle breaths to calm herself down. 'It's just a mission report, it'll be fine.' She told herself. 

Of course it would be fine. She was an aqua marine. Aqua marine's didn't get stressed out or nervous of course. She stepped out to the the Pyrope, the general of this particular quadrant of space. 

“The initial reports were correct,” Maxixe said, “There were organic lifeforms on the planet, four legged chitinous creatures with two grasping arms and an odd, viscous substance that dripped from their mouths. 

There were several other species of course, but this seemed to be the dominant. Unintelligent of course, but very mobile. The mouth gunk seems to generate a new of their kind once injected into the body of another organic.” 

“Disgusting creatures,” The Pyrope said dismissively, continuing to talk before Maxixe could say anything, “I trust they were no trouble for an aqua marine.” 

“Certainly not.” Maxixe said with a scoff, as though vaguely offended even by the suggestion that it would be. 

She decided there was nothing to be gained by mentioning how her zero point scope had jammed-as it so often did-and had required her Topaz fusion to fend off the organics with her dual war hammer until she'd been able to get the cheap thing working again. 

She desperately wanted a more functional tool, like the wands that the more high class aqua marine's used. 

But... no.. no she couldn't do that. In order to get new equipment, she'd have to give reasons why her current equipment wasn't working, and doing so would require her to actually admit that she couldn't make do with her scope. That would never do. 

She'd be the laughing stock of the aqua marines, of the entire blue court. It was a miracle that her Topaz fusion said nothing on it; a behavior Maxixe attributed to either phenomenal stupidity, or complicity coming from her being a fusion. 

Maxixe wondered occasionally what this complicity must feel like, but she cut that train of thought off just as quickly as she felt it start. It was of no concern to an aqua marine. Fusion was for the soldiers who were too weak to complete a task on their own. 

“Still there?” The pyrope questioned, annoyed. 

“Y-yes, my apologies, was simply... musing on how unfortunate the organics are to have not been born gems.” 

“Hm, yes, it is a rather rough roll of the dice they've been saddled with isn't it,” the Pyrope chuckled, “But nevertheless, its their role to play, and ours to roll over them.” 

“Indeed.” Maxixe agreed, agreed, mentally kicking herself for letting herself get distracted. 

She just needed to get through this report, then she could go back to the ship and wait for whatever the sapphire was planning to start. It was meant to be happening in just a few hours. 

Perhaps she'd chat with the Spinel a bit to lift her spirits while she waited.  
(

* * *

)  
Green Spinel came up above deck with a smile on her face. She'd gotten Maxixe to laugh, which was always an accomplishment. 

No word from white corundum in a bit, bit she did always have a tendency to go quiet for long stretches. She had been hoping to chat with her before this thing Ceylon was planning got underway, but she presumed they'd be able to stop and talk during it. Hoped so anyway, still wasn't sure what Ceylon was planning. 

But she had been asked to inform her Emerald that she'd be busy for a bit, and couldn't be interrupted. They'd presumably just assume she was working on her next routine. 

She... did, but wasn't the least bit happy about it. Of course she wasn't, she was an Emerald being told something by a Spinel. In retrospect, she could likely have gotten the same response from her by walking up and smacking her in the face with mud. 

The Nephrite crew all looked away as their Emerald started to absolutely go off on Spinel, who couldn't even bother committing to memory what was being said. 

Mostly insults about her status, which she didn't need to hear again, having committed them all to memory by this point. She stood still and let Emerald do her thing. It was her right after all. 

But Spinel still needed the time, and... her hands were starting to shake a bit as she was berated. Taking a deep breath, Spinel figured the best way to get the time alone without further questions. 

“Alright, alright I'll level with ya Emerald, I just need a little time away from all these Nephrites' ugly mugs. I mean seriously, look at them! I know pilot gems can get a little messed up, but usually that happens *after* a shipwreck.” 

A moment of silence, during which all the nephrites' shoulders dropped. Then, mercifully for Spinel, her Emerald burst out laughing. 

“I feel sorry for you honestly,” Spinel added, “You're too important to take time off, so you have to be around them. I was just hoping I'd be low enough in the crust that you'd spare me a few hours out of sight.” 

Through cackling laughter, the Emerald waved her Spinel off. Spinel made a beeline below deck, letting out a sigh of relief, and taking a few moments to calm herself down. Wouldn't be any help with her hands shaking like this...  
(

* * *

)  
The communicator buzzed with messages, both from Pink Agate and Spinel, but White Corundum couldn't find the energy to respond to them. 

She had so little energy on offer, she had to ration what little she had. Ceylon's... whatever it was, would be starting soon, and she had to do something before it did, before she forgot to do it. 

She sat against the wall of the odd room she'd existed in for longer than she could remember, trying to... well, remember. 

Her fingers rubbed her temples. When had she put on this helmet? Why? Was it.. just a part of her form like her clothes? Why had she formed with it? She closed her eyes and grit her teeth. 

She couldn't usually muster up the energy to genuinely try, but she was not, if only for the moment. She strained her gem with the effort of casting her mind back, back before this room. 

She remembered... darkness.. and.. the smell of rock and dirt. The ground around her had been so warm, so.. comfortable. Then... light... bright.. light... but that's it. 

She exhaled, any traction she'd made with her mind lost like a rope she'd been pulling had suddenly been yanked from her hands. She couldn't even remember what she was trying to remember. 

Looking up at the bubbled gems above, she figured it was probably those she was thinking about. They were so very weird looking after...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will be the first chapter where there's a difference between the M and T versions of this story, so if you wish to avoid, now would be the time to head over to either on webhead11233 on FF or Karwin on AO3. Also just another friendly reminder that all characters have ref pics on the sinfulnature1123 patron page. No spending, no nothing, they're just there because there's nowhere else I can really put them, lol.


	6. Distant

Lazurite grit her teeth in focus as she sent a wave at a nearby mountain.

It was the largest wave she’d managed to make in decades, and well needed considering it was the largest mountain she’d tried to deal with.

Her Desert Glass had been chipping away at its structure for some time now, but could only do so much. The wave crashed into it the land mass, cracking large chunks off of it.

Lazurite motioned with her hands, forcing the water to hook into the mountain on all sides, pulling it towards the ground. The water lost its form after a few moments, but it was a decent amount of damage done in one go.

Lazurite set to pulling the water back towards her for another try. “Should I even bother with this?” She mused allowed to the Desert Glass, “Ceylon will be coming soon.”

In answer, Desert Glass formed a sand image of a sapphire, which shifted into a question mark.

Lazurite frowned at this, “Okay, so obviously I’m not sure she’s actually coming here, but I figure if its as big a deal as she’s been making it out to be, it’ll have to involve me leaving this place. Its a lost cause anyway, there was never any life on it to clear out.”

The Desert Glass’ question mark remained.

Lazurite sighed, “Okay so what if it is wishful thinking? I’m allowed to do that to.” The question mark shifted into an image of the mountain, which slowly collapsed.

Annoyed, Lazurite muttered, “I know you’re supposed to keep me on track, but sometimes I really wish you wouldn’t.”

The desert Glass didn’t respond to this. Lazurite presumed from this that it simply didn’t care, and turned her attention back to the mountain.

It hadn’t occurred to her that the Desert Glass might actually be capable of feeling unsure of itself.  
(

* * *

)  
Caroline went back and forth on the silence.

She’d initially been fond of it, as compared to the sound of the diamond blast that had taken out so many, that could have taken her, silence was a welcome relief.

But no matter how many times she tried to convince herself that quiet was ultimately the lesser of two evils, she could never escape the simple fact that she was a quartz gem, and quartz soldiers simply weren’t built to cope with peace and quiet.

They needed activity and energy and something to do. Lately she’d been busying herself with tending to the plantlife of the garden; as it tended to become strangely aggressive when left to its own devices.

But even that was steadily becoming more and more maddening. She figured she’d have cracked by now if not for Ceylon and the communicator she’d been given.

As Caroline worked on the plants, pulling and cutting overgrown areas, she wondered what exactly this thing that they would all be doing tonight.

Much as she didn’t want to get her hopes up, she couldn’t stop herself hoping deep down that, whatever it was, it would involve her finally being around other gems.

She wanted to see the things R had forged, she wanted to spare with Pink Lace, she wanted to knock White Zircon and Maxixe’s heads together, and Lazurite…

She wanted to talk to her, see what she’d seen, find new things that neither of them had seen for the first time in ages for both of them. She wanted to be somewhere she could forget about what had happened to the other rose quartz. She wanted to be far, far away from the thoughts she had about herself as one. She wanted to be anywhere else other than this cursed garden, this cursed planet. She wanted…

Caroline snapped back to reality and took stock of what she’d just done.

She’d gotten a bit more agitated in her thoughts and had done quite a number on the garden. She stood panting, her battle axe lodged deep in a thicket of the spiked foliage it had been cleaving through.

She sighed, dispelling her weapon and just dropping like a bag of rocks. For beings made of light, she always wondered why it was that they could feel so drained..  
(

* * *

)  
Imperial Jade. much as forest and Yellow-Green loved being her, could only be maintained temporarily.

Not because of her components mind you. They speculated they could remain together for eons given the chance.

But they could only do so much in the confines around them. They couldn’t risk being found out. “What do you think the sapphire is planning?” Forest Jade asked.

“Who knows,” Yellow-Green said with a shrug, “Can’t rightly wrap our minds around one that sees into the future.”

“Could still be fun to speculate.” Forest said with a chuckle. “Leave that to the ‘innovative gems,’ as if other gems start speculating they’ll be all out of work.” Yellow-Green snickered.

Forest Jade giggled, “Oh be nice. And anyway, this is about our role in all this.” She said. “And what role are you suspecting they’ll have for us?” yellow-green asked curiously.

“I can’t be sure, as you said, but Ceylon has seemed to be rather… forward thinking, and not in the literal sense. I’ve watched how she talks to some of the other gems in the chat, and to us, together and apart.”

Yellow-Green hesitated, her voice not showing any of the expression on her face, “You think she might have our roles be the same?”

“In a manner of speaking, I can only hope so. Its dreadfully dull working separately for so long so often.” Forest confirmed.

She could keep it out of her voice, but the hope… no, desperation at this point, couldn’t escape the jade’s eyes. Yellow-Green felt a pang in her gem, and wanted nothing more than to dive over the desk at her and hit the ground as Imperial Jade.

Her restrained herself, fingers nearly digging into the desk. “I’ll.. have to agree...”  
(

* * *

)  
White Zircon was finishing another trial.

The last for this cycle and, depending on how the sapphire’s gathering went, potentially the last for quite some time.

She’d gone back and forth on whether or not to attend or spend more time preparing as the sapphire had asked, but, as a Zircon, she’d simply prepared much faster than she had anticipated, and had plenty of time.

She’s proven beyond a shadow of a doubt using the information she’d gathered that the amethyst they had in custody was in fact the rogue who’d attempted to rise up in the name of rose quartz.

Once she’d actually looked at the facts, the quartz’s story couldn’t hold up to a stiff breeze. The White Zircon kept her face straight as she laid out the facts, refusing to let the satisfaction of seeing the amethyst realize she was caught in a lie show on her face.

When it became clear she was out options for defending herself though, the amethyst took the more traditional route for soldier gems: offense.

The quartz let out a roar of anger, smashing through the containment cage she’d been being held in like tissue paper and barreling towards Zircon, taking out her weapon, a glaive, to make her frustrations known.

She had to have known that there was no way she would actually escape, hence her attempting to use what little time she had to try and shatter the gem responsible.

And most other zircons would likely have been shattered, as no law gem has the agility or strength to avoid or counter a quartz.

White Zircon could only thank the grace of the sapphire for the things she had asked her to prepare, as she’d gotten so used to practicing with the tools she'd gotten together that she reached for them without even thinking when the amethyst attacked her.

She liked to call them her Battle Screens; very durable, sharp edged versions of the screens she used in the courtroom to keep notes and display evidence.

What use she would have for a weapon as a zircon was beyond her, but as she pulled them out in front of her, blocking the glaive’s impact, she was glad the sapphire had asked her to get them.

The amethyst was so stunned by the block that zircon had time to send one of the screens into her stomach like a blade, poofing the soldier gem. The gem collapsed to the ground.

The entire courtroom had eyes on white zircon now, and for the second time, she was grateful to the sapphire for having given word ahead of time that she would be needed elsewhere immediately after the trial; as she’d have otherwise certainly been interrogated herself for not only having a weapon, but being able to use it.


	7. Ahead of the Game

“I think that's the most we can manage for now,” Olive said, looking at the little over half finished machine they’d built, looking half like a sculpture and half like a broken cybernetic enhancement, “Ceylon said the remaining necessary resources won’t be obtainable until we’ve started.” 

Rhodochrosite nodded, “Better get going before anyone notices how long you’ve been down here. Don’t want the scandalous news out.” 

She said the words in a joking manner, though Olive wasn’t sure why considering that was a legitimate risk. 

Olive nodded, heading out of the cave, “Be safe. Ceylon said we’ll be starting here soon, but there’s no telling how volatile things will be during this.. Whatever it is.” 

“I’ve made it this far haven’t I?” Rhodi said with a confident smile, “See you on the other side.” 

Olive nodded, hoping her friend was right as she made her way back out of the caves.  
(

* * *

)  
Ceylon sat quietly and calmly as her Carnaliens.. Well, mostly killed time and fooled around really, but she enjoyed watching them have their fun as they pretended to be on patrol. 

They were really just flexing or showing off their combative skills. Ceylon made an active choice not to put any thought into why she enjoyed watching them do this, as it was ultimately no matter; even if the effort of suppressed such thoughts was resulting in a small frost buildup at the edge of her dress. 

Small price, little effort. 

She perked up suddenly, her thoughts stirred away from her Carnaliens as she realized it was time. She sent her Carnaliens to do a sweep of the grounds, acting as though she had foreseen a potential security breach. 

When the quartz guards were out of sight, Ceylon took out her communicator and set to her task, sending the information to all twelve… well, twelve technically, gems that would be participating. 

What they would be doing was to be, for the sake of simplicity, considered a game. She stressed that it was to be taken seriously, and was really a game more in concept than execution; as the reality of the situation was far more crucial than the title of ‘game’ made it sound. 

They were to keep their communicator, weapon, and their ‘guide item’, a living or non-living item they trusted, near them. She would send all players a link to this ‘game’, and once started, the first player to join would require the help of the second player to actually start. 

The third would then help the second, fourth then help the third, and so on and so on until the final player was helped in by the first. 

Ceylon: Time is crucial. Once the first player is in, it will become more and more dangerous for those not yet in. I will repeat that the danger of this ‘game’ is legitimate, and to be taken seriously. If more than six minutes pass between the first and final player entering the game, all participants, myself included, will be shattered. The game cannot be stopped once started, and if not started, all participants will be shattered within the following cycle. Be careful, but be quick. Things will become more self explanatory once all players have safely entered. Everyone. Do your best. 

Ceylon hit send, and took a breath, calm and quiet, hoping for the best.  
(

* * *

)  
River read the message several times, making sure she understood it all. 

She didn’t understand how it could all be possible, how their lives hinged on whether or not they successfully started a game. But then, River supposed she was just a pearl. Perhaps it made more sense to the others. It certainly seemed to make sense to Ceylon. 

“I’ll need time to myself my Morganite,” River said calmly. 

Morganite looked at her pearl with confusion at the tone, River gulping and quickly adding, “U-under orders of a sapphire, my Morganite, I am needed for a task.” 

This seemed to placate her, and the scholar gem nodded, giving a dismissive wave to send her off. River nodded, making her respectful diamond sign and heading off to a nearby room to begin. 

She would have to ask Ceylon or perhaps her Morganite to explain this situation to her later.  
(

* * *

)  
Olive returned to her residence, making a beeline for the work space without taking notice of things having been rearranged at the front. It made more sense to set up there, as that's where all her equipment would be. 

She already had the communicator out and, as such, the link to begin the game, just waiting for someone to press it and be the first player. She nearly sent the device flying into the air in fright when the gem who’d entered her work space before her cleared her throat. 

“Awfully jumpy for a Peridot.” The Hessonite said sternly. 

Were Olive an organic life form the blood would have drained from her at this. The tall, powerful, general gem explained that Olive’s frequent trips below ground had been noticed. 

“It’s not out of line for a peridot to be interested in the old kindergartens from which the first gems emerged of course, but the amount of times you’ve left your obligations for them and the time frame you’ve spent down there has lead some of us to wonder if there isn’t… more going on.” 

Olive fumbled for a response, glancing down at her communicator in the hopes she could subtly send an SOS to Ceylon, the only gem of high enough rank to send the Hessonite away without question. But upon looking to the screen, Olive’s horror increased by several orders of magnitude. 

While she’d not jumped and thrown the device across the room, her startling had lead her to instead grip the communicator tighter; one of her fingers accidentally hitting the screen. Specifically, hitting the link to begin the game. 

Olive had made herself the first player. There were now six minutes in counting. And the Hessonite stood not six feet from her, arms crossed, scrutinizing her every move and still waiting for a response.


	8. Gems: Enter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a bit of a long one folks, as we're crossing the threshold so to speak.

Of all the gems it could possibly have been…

“Do you not intend to explain your behavior?” Hessonite questioned, “I was told Peridots excel at giving reports, and yet you’ve remained near enough silent since I entered.”

Olive gulped, grasping for something to say. “I.. have simply been.. Attempting to get a better understanding of the nature of kindergartens, and gem production. The early kintergartens were made with such limited resources. If we could learn to make more efficient use of the available materials, we can get more out of every single colony planet; resulting in exponentially higher growth across the empire.”

She tried to read the Hessonite’s expression to tell if she was buying it, but garnet generals seemed to be remarkably talented at maintaining a poker face.

“Diligent work I suppose,” she said simply, “But you’ve begun to let it affect your standard work, which will not be accepted. You may only be one peridot, but we cannot have cogs turning against the machinery of our empire. You know what happened the last time such was tolerated for too long? The earth rebellion, that’s what.”

Hessonite had begun to pace back and forth as she spoke, launching into a semi-crazed sounding rant. She wouldn’t be the first Olive had heard rant about it, but she was certainly the highest ranking.

‘If all players have not entered the game within six minutes of beginning, all players will be shattered.’

Olive shifted nervously, her mind working overtime on how she could handle this situation without her shards being scattered to the vacuum of space.

Hessonite noticed Olive’s shifting and stopped in her movement, eyes narrowing, “You know,” Hessonite said, voice suddenly much more focused, much colder, “There have been rumors for ages now that some rebels from earth still remain.”

“Have there now?” Olive asked, attempting to sound nonchalant.

She was no rebel, at least not that particular kind, but she was smart enough to know that being defensive only made you look guiltier.

She may have been an era one peridot, but Hessonite still towered over her, and she wasn’t keen on the idea of giving her a reason to show why garnets were used as generals.

“Yes, there have. They say they escaped the blast from our glorious Diamonds by cowering under the shield of Rose Quartz.” Hessonite said.

‘Nonsense,’ Olive thought. Mutant or not, no quartz soldier could become strong enough to handle the full might of one Diamond, let alone three.

“An interesting theory.” Olive said simply.

“It’s been further considered,” Hessonite continued, “That before the warps were disabled, some rebels may have snuck to Homeworld. If said rebels were technologically literate, a peridot for example, it would be a simple matter for them to keep their rebel allies informed on the developments of homeworld.”

Her arms had uncrossed, and she had one hand lingering her the center of her body, where gem lay and thus where her weapon would be drawn from if needed.

“I doubt any peridot would join the rebels.” Olive said, unable to keep her voice from sounding nervous and thus guilty.

“I’m sure you would.” She said, gem starting to glow, “But it has been the logical policy of homeworld to be safe than sorry..”

Olive wouldn’t have been able to react had the Hessonite attacked her, but likewise hadn’t been able to react as what looked for all the world like a giant green computer cursor hovered down and picked Hessonite up before jolting violently around the room as though someone was going completely mental with the mouse, shaking the garnet general like a ragdoll before throwing her into a wall, where she collapsed, unconscious.

Olive was so confused, she jumped in shock when the communicator beeped to alert her of a message.

R: You’re welcome.  
Olive: What?  
R: The Hessonite. That was me.  
Olive: I.  
Olive: What?  
Olive: How?  
R: When you activated the game, a notification popped up saying you needed another player to bring you into the game officially, like Ceylon said. I signed on, and got this cursor. Not sure how it works, but its letting me move things around in a space around you. Also, I’ve got these.

There was a sudden loud thus, and looking up, Olive saw two large, bulky machines in front of her, one looking to be a cylindrical vault, the other a pedestal with a computer pad, both massive and bulky.

R: They’re labeled as the ‘Cruxtruder’ and the ‘Alchemiter.’ Near as I can decipher, you’re immediate goal is to open the vault, put something into glowy thing that comes out, take the stone that comes out of the vault to the platform, press a button, and then break it.  
Olive: In aid of?  
R: Going by Ceylon, in aid of not being immediately shattered.  
Olive: Fair.

Olive stored the communicator in her gem so as not to be distracted by it, and set to work. She tried to open the Cruxtruder by the massive stone wheel lock on it, and when it proved to be winched shut, she went to her work bench, bending down to reach what she had kept hidden below it.

Ceylon had said they’d need to be armed, but she’d never specified with what. Two mechanical drones flew from the case, following Olive’s orders and latching onto the wheel, turning it near effortlessly.

The hatch popped off, and two things shot out. The first a bright, glowing green orb.

The second an equally green crystalline chunk of unidentified stone. Following Rhodi’s directions, she first focused on getting the ‘glowy thing’ occupied.

“So this is what Ceylon meant when by guiding object.” Quite a lot of what Ceylon has been explaining was making sense now.

She went to her main work room. The automaton was nearly finished, and she needed only make sure everything was in place before flipping the switch.

Sure enough, the twenty foot robonoid jerked to life, light blaring from it. She’d have liked time to appreciate her handiwork, but she didn’t bother whining about it, directing the machine to reach out for the glowing orb.

There was a flash of bright light, temporarily blinding Olive, and then the orb was no longer an orb. It seemed to have.. Absorbed the drone.

Or perhaps the drone had absorbed it. It was glowing the same green color, hovering off the ground, translucent, and most noticeable to Olive, it had a noticeable awareness in mechanical eyes, not the cold, thoughtlessness that had been there before. She wasn’t sure how, but her machine… was alive.

“You may wish to focus on the task at hand,” the drone spoke, “At least for now.”

Olive’s brain refused to short circuit for what would certainly have been the fourth or so time that day, and instead did just that. She went back to the other room, lifting the stone and bringing it to Alchemiter. Once placed down, the screen on the bulky machine blinked on.

She pressed the glowing ‘activate’ button, and the stone was instantly, seemingly by nothing, carved into an engineer target, the kind Olive usually used to test drone accuracy. She could have laughed at the absurdity.

With a snap of her fingers, one of her two attack drones fired a bolt of energy at the stone.

It shattered, and the entire building lit up.  
(

* * *

)  
Rhodochrosite still wasn’t sure what all was happening, but she was glad she’d been able to help Olive with the Hessonite; and even more glad when her green friend had forgotten Rhodi was watching and bent over to retrieve her attack drones, giving the fusion an excellent view for all three eyes.

She was slightly nervous when the entire screen lit up with light, but she trusted Ceylon, and going by what she’d said, it would be Rhodi’s turn to enter the game next.

She wasn’t entirely sure who it was that linked up to her, but unless it was Ceylon, they’d be getting a shock when they saw her.

When the cursor appeared and, after a moment of presumably the operator realizing what Rhodochrosite was, began to move things around Rhodi’s cave to make space for the items.

‘Definitely not Zircon or Maxixe then.’ Rhodi thought, thanking whoever it was as she proceeded to turn the wheel to open the cruxtruder with one hand.

She moved to pick up her statue of the moon goddess, delicately placing it into the pale glowing orb, she shielded her eyes from the flash, then looked in awe at the ethereal image of the now living moon goddess before her.

She’d watched it happen the Olive’s robot, but hadn’t, she supposed, braced herself for it actually happening to the statue. The moon goddess giggled, and pointed to the stone.

“Right, right.” She nodded, taking the pillar of stone to the alchemeter and hitting the button. It proceeded to shift into a long, deviated pole; the kind that Rhodi would have used to carve weapon bolds.

With a 3x eyeroll, Rhodi took out her weapon: a wonderfully ornate longsword, and brought it down onto the stone pole with a powerful swing.  
(

* * *

)  
Caroline winced as the screen lit up.

She’d only just gotten to grips with seeing what Rhodochrosite was, only for the communicator to then proceed to try and blind her. Still, she’d gotten her in.

No sooner did that thought occur did it occur to her to question why the next player hadn’t started bringing her in. she started to type out a message in the chat when the two machines dropped down.

Caroline supposed they’d seen her about to question what the hold up was, and felt pretty sheepish. Wait… seen her… and yet no comment… had to be Ceylon she realized.

Any other gem would likely have accepted a shattering if it meant taking down a rose quartz with them.

She needed to use both hands, but she managed to wrench the Cruxtruder open. Before she could stop it, the glowing orb was grabbed by the ornery every growing thorn vines from those infernal bushes.

The result was a hovering, glowing mass of thorny vines assembled in roughly the shape of a humanoid. Caroline stared at it for a moment, then summoned her battle axe.

“I’ll merge with the next thing I touch as well,” The vine being said, “And you’ve got bigger issues.” Grumbling.

Caroline put the stone on the pedestal, which, upon hitting the confirmation button, proceeded to shift into an effigy of the vine being.

Caroline had no qualms about bringing her battle axe down on this.  
(

* * *

)  
Lazurite’s face was still hot with the embarrassment of having just stared for the first few moments since linking to Caroline.

She couldn’t even decide firmly what had prompted it. The knowledge that she was a rose quartz, or just… finally getting to see her… she snapped out of the contemplation she’d been about to slip back into when the next player in the chain dropped the machines down for her.

She thanked them, and opened the Cruxtruder easily with her water powers; after several failed attempts at opening it with her hands. She lifted Desert Glass off the ground and placed it into the orb, her jaw dropping at the form it took.

Desert Glass subsequently flushed slightly from the staring, only noticing it after a few moments of looking herself over, unused to having an actual form.

“Discussion after you’ve entered.” Desert Glass said.

“R-right.” Lazurite said, placing the stone on the alchemiter quickly.

It formed into a miniature of the mountain Lazurite had finished leveling that day; though it proved much, much easier to destroy.  
(

* * *

)  
“Is she in?” Forest Jade asked.

“If she isn’t, I don’t know what being in would look like.” Yellow-Green chuckled. “Do you… think its time?”

Forest smiled, “Ceylon not so subtly informed me that we’ll be quite far from homeworld when we enter.”

“How far?” Yellow-Green asked, trying and failing not to sound as desperate as she was.

“Far enough~” Forest Jade whispered, pulling her other half into a kiss. No dance, no further words, no music required.

Imperial Jade shuddered in delight, and looked around the room to see the machines already deposited.

“Guess they were going to see eventually.” Jade chuckled to herself, gripping the Cruxtruder handle with all four hands and opening it with surprising ease; never having realized how much raw strength she had. She brought the song stone to the orb, delighted to see it actually conscious and aware for once.

When she brought the stone, cruxite if she’d read the instructions properly, to the alchemiter, it shifted into a figurine of a very particular soldier gem. Neither jade had ever met the quartz personally, but she was a legend on homeworld; and very outspoken in her disgust of fusion.

The figurine shattered easily beneath Imperial jade’s foot.  
(

* * *

)  
White Corundum stared at the screen for a good while, even after everything lit up.

Partially because she was trying to wrap her mind around what she’d just seen, partially because she’d more or less burnt out her focus getting the two machines out without accidentally sending them out the window.

She didn’t even notice the same two machines appearing in her own room for a bit. There was a distant thud from outside. She wasn’t sure what it was, but it did rattle her enough to notice the machines.

The Cruxtruder was already open, the next player having used the cursor to manage it, and had dragged the cruxite to the alchemiter, where it had formed into a generic gemstone shape.

Corundum could have and very well might have simply stared at it for the next few minutes, so it was perhaps lucky that another of those distant thuds caused one of the bubbled gems overhead to pop.

It began to take form-a flailing, chaotic, monstrous one-as it fell into the orb. The resulting glowing gem amalgamate roared, lashing out with one of its limbs.

It seems sustained contact was needed for it to absorb the next thing it touched, because its striking the gemstone idol just caused it to break, and Corundum to enter the game.  
(

* * *

)  
River signed in relief and a bit of frustration.

She’d known Corundum was a bit slow on the update, but that had been terrifyingly slow. The next player in the chain started to bring her in, letting out the machines.

River managed to open the Cruxtruder via physics, wedging her staff into the wheel like level and managing to force it open.

She mused on what to put into the orb, or ‘sprite’ as she read it to be called, only for a loud, building shaking boom to break her concentration. The purple pearl rushed out to the main room of the spire, her eyes widening at what she found.

A meteorite had crashed into the spire. She could see the entry hole the massive, red hot rock had made. Her Morganite had been poofed by the impact. More than that, cracked. The heavily damaged gemstone was breaking apart before River’s eyes.

She started to hyperventilate, before she realized what to do. Lazurite had said in the chat how the sprite had given Desert Glass a form.

Maybe… just maybe… she took hold of Morganite’s gem as delicately as possible, hurrying back to the other room before another meteor could impact the spire.

She dropped it into the sprite, and sure enough; her Morganite took form once again, good as the day she was made.

“Not a spectacular choice, but I’ll admit I personally like it.” Morganitesprite said dismissively, as though there was nothing especially important about this at all.

“Well hurry up now.” River, slightly taken aback, nodded, and got to work, bringing the cruxite to the alchemiter and using her staff to shatter the miniature of the spire it formed.  
(

* * *

)  
Ceylon chuckled at watching River prototype-the act of putting something into a sprite-her Morganite.

When the machines were dropped into her chamber, she stood and assured her Carnelians there was no need to worry.

“Are you loyal to me?” She asked.

All three quartz soldiers nodded in unison.

“Then trust me actions and orders. All of this has been foreseen.”

“Yes my sapphire!” All three said with fierce pride as they saluted.

Suppressing the shiver this sent up her spine, she ordered one to open the cruxtruder.

They did so easily, though all three stared in shock when Ceylon stepped into it, merging with the sprite and gaining a vastly greater understanding of the game.

“Relax,” Ceylonsprite said, “Everything is fine.”

Trusting their sapphire, they proceeded to follow their orders. Carrying the cruxite to the alchemiter, activating it, and smashing the effigy it formed; oddly a small crystal idol of herself.  
(

* * *

)  
Green Spinel stared at the screen, unsure what to make of what she’d just watched Ceylon do.

Before she could muse on it much, the cursor appeared and started moving things around to make space.

The next player, whoever they were, seemed to give up on it upon seeing how little space Spinel had in her room. It was more of a supply closet really… because it was a supply closet.

Eyes widening nervously, she bolted out to see that, sure enough, the cruxtruder and alchemiter had been placed in the main control room of the ship.

Emerald and the nephrite crew, though, were far more preoccupied with what was outside the ship. It seemed that a rush of meteors had appeared out of nowhere.

Not a melt either. They were moving far too fast, and if what Emerald was saying was true, they’d come from seemingly nowhere.

The artificial gravity was preventing anything being shaken up inside despite the absolutely mental maneuvers being made.

Spinel very quietly creeped into the center of the room, stretching her arms round the cruxtruder wheel several times over, hoping she could get this done before anyone noticed, she got as far as successfully hoping the cruxtruder before all hell broke loose.

A meteor impacted the ship, something the ship’s gravity couldn't nullify, and sent all of the nephrites out of their chairs; one directly into the sprite. The flash of light drew the other’s attention; and the moment they were no longer operating the ship, more space debris began smashing into the ship.

Not in panic mode, Green Spinel hurriedly brought the cruxite to the alchemiter, raising her hands, which expanded as she balled them into fists, and slamming them down on the effigy of her emerald it formed.  
(

* * *

)  
White Zircon was slightly at a loss for what was going on the Green spinel’s ship.

Well, on the emerald’s ship that the Green spinel was on, but nevertheless, next would be herself.

As the next gem in the change began to deposit the machines, Zircon stumbled as something shook the room and, by extension, the entire building.

Zircon went to the window to try and ascertain the cause and was met with something she’d not expected: a red hell. The same kinds of meteors that had been harassing the Emerald’s ship were now raining down around the White Diamond court.

Buildings were being leveled by sheer impact and those not destroyed were consumed by flames spreading across the interconnected structures of Homeworld. It’d have been fascinating if it weren’t so horrifying. ‘Is this what the sapphire had seen?’

It was a stupid thought, Zircon decided. Of course this was what she had seen.

This was what would shatter them all if this ‘game’-a word she was quite certain now to be a code-was not entered. She hurried to the machines, finding the Cruxtruder already opened, courtesy of the next gem in the chain and Zircon’s desk, moved with the cursor to act as a lever.

The sprite was out, and in need of prototyping. Zircon whistled, calling out her Geodes. The two stared in confusion at the glowing orb, and then at Zircon’s request, they fluttered into the orb.

In a flash of light they took solid form, a single Geodesprite, the two of them fused together. They’d always mentioned wanting to fuse someday, but had never been certain on how, and Zircon hadn’t been keen on helping them.

Couldn’t be helped, she supposed, and with armageddon immediately outside her office there was little point in complaining now. She brought the cruxite to the alchemiter, where it formed into a crystalline effigy of a pile of documents. Paperwork, Zircon realized with slight annoyance.

She drew out her battle screens and sent one into the paperwork, causing it to split and shatter.  
(

* * *

)  
Pink Lace Agate was panicking slightly by the time White Zircon was brought in.

The meteors had reached Pink’s court a minute or so ago and were already starting to level the place. For the first time ever the Agate was quite thankful Pink’s court was so empty, as so few could ultimately be caught in the devastation.

She, however, was still imminently in danger, and started acting the moment the machines were set out for her, brute forcing the cruxtruder opened with her hands and, after a moment of hesitation, retrieving her pebble friend from the walls.

She was slightly disoriented and confused, but Pink Lace knew she’d be much safer in the sprite than here. Pebblesprite seemed infinitely less confused by the situation, though the Agate didn’t have the time to ask how.

Pink Lace brought the cruxite to the alchemiter and watched as it shifted into a stone combat dummy; the kind Bismuths usually made to test soldier weapons.

Pink Lace drew her weapon and lashed out; the spiked hooks of her flog rending the stone apart easily.  
(

* * *

)  
Maxixe had felt so clever. When it became clear meteors were an immediate problem, she’d believed immediately moving the ship and keeping it moving would prevent any danger.

But almost as soon as Pink Lace was through, the meteors seemed to change their course. No.. not their course, it was their point of origin that changed, making the flaming stone now rain down where the ship was headed rather than where it was.

The entire ship was sent spinning as a particularly large one smashed into the side. Maxixe let out a few choice words to Olive, who she knew from the fact that she’d been first in was the one meant to bring her in as well.

The alchemiter and cruxtruder appeared thankfully, though after several attempts to the cruxtruder, she found that she wasn’t going to get anywhere with it herself. With a groan of frustration, she called the Topaz fusion in.

The bulky fusion gem thankfully didn’t ask questions, opening the cruxtruder when ordered with insulting ease.

When the cruxite and sprite popped out though, Maxixe wasn’t able to stop her from reaching out and grabbing the glowing orb, having presumably assumed it was a threat of some kind.

“Oh skip it.” Maxixe grumpled, focusing her scope onto the cruxite and moving it to the alchemiter, lifting the era one aqua marine statue it had become and smashing it against the machine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All twelve gems have entered. The game has officially begun.


	9. Comprehension of New Lands

Olive, now firmly in the game-or at least she hoped so, because if not she wasn’t sure she wanted to know what actually being in the game looked like-had a moment to catch her breath and more importantly, ask her now living, ghostly, glowing, automaton what in the world was happening. 

The automaton, Autosprite, explained as best it could. 

“This game, Scrust, functions as an entire, living universe unto itself. It was created the moment you entered, and yet has always existed. It has its own history, its own people. All Scrust players will have their own planet in this universe to explore and challenge them; such as the one you’re on currently, LoFaH, Land of Focus and Hives.”

Autosprite gestured to the mechanical platform with its glowing, ghostly yet metallic arm, “You may use the Alchemiter to combine anything and everything you find into new, potentially stronger items. As your sprite, it is my job to guide you; though there is only so much I’m capable of doing or saying at any given time.” 

Olive listened to the hovering spectral machine. In any other situation, with anything else leading up to it, she’d have called nonsense. 

But after cycle after cycle of Ceylon instructing them, after seeing the messages in the chat from the other gems about the meteors raining down across the universe.. It seemed, if nothing else, appropriately grand. 

After a moment to think, Olive found the proper question to ask her guide, “What is the goal now?” 

Autosprite smiled, or at least seemed to, the mechanical body of the drone made it difficult to be certain, “Completion of Scrust will result in a new universe, a proper one, to be created. All surviving players will be allowed into it to live within this new world, unburdened by the turmoil of their original or of the monsters here in Scrust.” 

Olive wasn’t shocked by this news. It made a great deal of sense all things considered, she just hadn’t thought of it. 

She looked up to her two drones, custom made Shatter Robonoids, built to fire at anything Olive personally instructed rather than acting on their own. If this world was as dangerous as it sounded, she was glad she had made them. 

But the concept of the alchemiter had her mind already working again on ways they could be improved. Her thought process was halted by the sound of scratching and skittering reached her. 

“You… mentioned monsters in this game, didn’t you?” Olive questioned, looking around for the source of the sound. 

“Yes, all planets had an assortment of both unique and common creatures who exist only to hinder and harm the players.” 

Olive’s eyes narrowed, setting the robonoids to scanning. They picked up on movement easily, Olive following it to see the creatures that had made their way into her workshop. 

But seeing them did little to help Olive get to grips with what specifically they were. All five were short, the largest being four feet, with skin like black tar. 

All five were clearly the same creature, this could be figured out even without them all having words hovering over them, labeling them as ‘Shale Imps.’ In addition to the name labels, each had green bars hovering over them. 

Health bars, Olive realized. ‘They did say it was a game.’ 

The gem thought as she looked them over. More odd though, were the differing features between them. 

The closest two her seemed to be wearing a long dress, with arms stretching out in different directions; one of which ended in a sword-like blade. 

Next to it was one even shorter, with small clawed hands, a gem on its chest like a Nephrite-Olive could recognize the cut easily-and thick, thorny vines extending from across its body. 

The third had four thin wings, its hands much larger than they should have been and hovering away from the wrists, its actual wrists holding a small white gemstone against its chest. 

The fourth seemed to have a desert glass wedged into its chest, its body seeming more mechanical than organical, the features strikingly similar to Autosprite. 

The largest of them was quite bulky, with only a single eye, and a massive dual ended hammer in its spiked hands. 

Olive could likely have escaped out of the other end of the workshop, but didn’t see much value in avoiding it at this point. 

If this was what this world was, there would be others. Other, stronger battles. And if this was supposed to be a game, then avoiding them now would do little but leave Olive unprepared for those she couldn’t. 

She took a deep breath. They hadn’t seen her, but there’d be no stealth after she attacked. She aimed both Robonoids. 

Olive wasn’t certain why, but got the impression some of these creatures had powers relating to gems. And if the cyclopean eye of the imp was any indication, it would have the powers of a sapphire; making it immediately the most dangerous. 

The first robonoid fired, and the imp jumped out of the way, having foreseen the attack coming. It hadn’t seen the second coming. 

The blast of the second hit the bulky imp in chest, its body vanishing as it was killed in a single blast. It didn’t vanish the way gems did when shattered or damaged though. 

It seemed to melt… vanish into a small pile of green crystalline octagons. 

Curious, but Olive could handle that when there wasn’t an immediate threat. All eyes went to Olive, but she had time to fire again, both robonoids hitting the mechanical desert glass imp. 

Despite how fragile the first had been, the second seemed bulky enough to survive the dual blast for a few seconds before vanishing. 

The other three charged, Olive backing away as the drones fired. The nephrite gem didn’t last long, plants burning away easily under the blasts. 

The winged imp twirled through the air, avoiding the shots and getting close enough to try and slam the gemstone it was holding into Olive’s chest. 

Olive jumped back, dropping onto her back to avoid the two disembodied hands striking each other. 

She brought her legs up and drove both into the imp’s chest, leaving it off guard long enough for the robonoids to blast it. 

This just left the multi-limbed monster which was getting distressingly close. Olive rolled on the ground, its sword arm cutting into the floor beneath her. One of the other hands grabbed her by her handle and threw her up. 

It had a surprising amount of strength, and she hit the ceiling with a dull thud. It had perhaps been aiming to cut her with the sword on her way down; but the drones had already taken care of it by the time she landed. 

Not the smartest of creatures it seemed. Olive peeled her face off the ground with a slight groan of pain. Peridots were built to last of course, even the weakest able to take quite a lot of punishment, but that didn’t prevent them feeling pain. 

Looking over the odd blue objects the bodies had left after the creatures’ deaths, Olive sighed, “Alright, that's a start.”  
(

* * *

)   
Lazurite looked out over the expanse. 

The ground she’d been standing on had been brought in with her, a single chunk of bare rock now supported on the top of what looked very much like a solid surface made of clouds. 

“Where am I..?” She asked, fascinated both by the sight, and from the odd, slightly discordant melody drifting up from the thick mist preventing Lazurite seeing the surface of wherever she was. 

“LoMaS,” Desert Glass-sprite answered, “Land of Music and Smoke. Your personal planet.” 

“Apt name I guess.” Lazurite said with a chuckle, swaying gently to the music. She hadn’t known how much she would miss music after so, so very long terraforming that planet. 

Desert Glass tried to say something, her instincts as a sprite and as herself to keep Lazurite on track halted by the sight of the blue gem with a genuine smile. 

She matched it with one of her own as Lazurite began to move to the music echoing up from the smoke below. If this was her personal planet, Lazurite thought, she may as well enjoy it. 

She let out her wings and flew up into the smoke, Desert glass following as she seemed to be able to float naturally now. The two moved gracefully through the smoggy open air, dancing to the music for some time. 

Right up until they learned how not exactly open this air was, when a being seemingly made of the same solid cloud she’d been standing on crashed into Lazurite; forcing her down into the smoke below.  
(

* * *

)   
White Zircon looked out at the endless black outside the windows. 

She’d known she was ‘entering the game,’ but hadn’t been expecting her office to come with her. But seeing the darkness, she was glad for it. LoNaE, Land of Night and Entropy. 

Not the most welcoming of names, but infinitely more welcoming than the shower of death and red hot stone that had been left for her before. 

Geodesprite seemed more than happy with her new existence, confusing though it was to Zircon. She’d heard the sprite’s introductory spheal about Scrust, and for the moment was focused on Alchemy. Most combinations of objects seemed to yield two potential results; but all seemed to require something called ‘Grist’ to actually make the combination. 

She could glean that it was some kind of fuel for the alchemiter, but she wasn’t certain of how to obtain any. “Grist is provided by defeating enemies. Upon defeat, their bodies will be reduced to grist of one or more types.” Geodesprite said. 

“Ah, yes,” White Zircon said, “...enemies?” 

As if on cue, something crashed into another room of Zircon’s office. 

The gem gulped nervously as she brought out her battle screens.  
(

* * *

)   
Pink Lace Agate and her rubies looked out in awe over the fields of LoGaD, Land of Glow and Diamond. Intimidating as the name was to a gem, the sight was beautiful. 

Lush green organic plant life and natural crystals growing from the ground, catching the light from above and refracting it over the fields. 

The group wanted to explore of course, and according to Pebblesprite, this seemed to be more or less what they were meant to do anyway. 

Pink Lace smiled, but suggested they all kept close to her as she led them out. She could see what looked like a town in the distance, and figured that would be a good place to start. 

They made it all of five minutes before getting distracted. A small ball of light seemed to come into existence before the group, the reflected colors of the crystals giving it an ethereal appearance. 

It was strange, but just as beautiful as the landscape around it. 

“Are you a local?” The agate asked. 

The little thing giggled and nodded, “trying to get to town are you? I can show you the way if you’d like.” 

Pink Lace smiled, “That'd be great, thank you.” The sparkling thing seemed pleased, and began to lead Agate and her rubies; all five too distracted to realize it was leading them away from the town. 

Pebblesprite wanted to warn them, but found herself physically unable to speak up. As a sprite, a part of Scrust and its systems, she couldn’t cheat by giving a player information like that. 

She just crossed her fingers that they’d figure it out.  
(

* * *

)   
Hessonite groaned as her eyes finally opened. 

She pulled herself out of the her-shaped dent in the wall. She wasn’t sure how long she’d been out, but the peridot wasn’t present anymore. She wasn’t certain what had been done to her, but she was quite certain it was treasonous. 

She stumbled out of the peridot’s workshop, seeing the chrome landscape of the world she’d been unintentionally brought into and the electric blue sky above it. 

She felt the heavy movements of something approaching, and drew her weapon before it arrived. Sickle in hand, she looked up at the two story being before her. 

Pitch black skin and powerful tusks from its mouth. It had fists that would put an elite quartz to shame, a massive hammer clenched in one and vines sprouting from all over its body. A beast like this could have shattered most gems without thought. 

Hessonite only glared, blitzing passed it faster than it could see. She didn’t bother looking back, and as she walked away, the two halves of the monster fell away from one another and melted into grist, defeated effortlessly. 

Hessonite didn’t know where she was, but she was certain of one thing: she would find the rebels here, and bring their shards back to the Diamonds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those curious, 'Scrust' because Sburb is the traditional name of the game, a contortion of suburb, a place where people are, or Sgrub, a contortion of grub, which is the baby version of an alien species. Scrust contorts crust, as in the section of planet where gemstones might be found. Isn't perfect but the best I could manage ^^U


	10. Heat, Battle, and Frustration

The gem species’ body was basically just the gemstone itself. 

The rest of the body was a hardlight construction produced from it. Gems are, in essence, just rocks and light. 

So when Green Spinel realized it was too bright for her-a gem-outside, she realized how truly an issue her current situation was. 

Nephritesprite hadn’t been much help since appearing, mostly panicking and trying to see where the rest of the crew was; as they most certainly weren’t on board anymore. 

She’d managed to get the information that this utterly hellish planet she’d been brought to was called LoGaS, Land of Gold and Suns. 

Knowing she wasn’t going to get anywhere quickly without being able to see, and not remotely as bothered by the missing crew, she set to checking the messages on the communicator to see how the others were doing and ask for help. 

The concept of alchemy was brought to her attention, and upon realizing that literally anything could be fused together to make new objects, she saw how she could rectify her current issues. 

She moved around the busted up insides of the ship in search of materials. Forms of synthesized plastics and mechanical components, etc. 

She wasn’t totally certain what would go into making a pair of ultra strength shades to make the sunlight less intense, but after heavy trial and error with different materials on the alchemiter pad, she managed to get it to spit out the strongest possible sunglasses. 

Seeing as the light couldn't harm her body at all, this would be more than enough. She put them on and, tentatively, began to inspect outside the ship. 

Green Spinel had seen deserts before. Her Emerald had had missions on such planets before. But she'd never known until now what it felt like to be so help in the middle of such a vast expanse of nothing but sand and heat in every direction, like a painfully hot version of being lost in space. 

“Well this place sure looks happening.” Spinel said sarcastically as she stepped out more into the sand, looking for some indication of where to go. 

And as if the world itself had taken offense, it was right that moment that a large, golden, feathered monster dove down at the unsuspecting green gem.  
(

* * *

)  
Maxixe: This place is DREADFUL.   
Pink Agate: Not taking well to your planet I take it?   
Maxixe: That's an understatement. This place is awful! My ship crashed at the base of one of the structures of the local creatures, large fur covered things with powerful legs. Topaz alternates between calling them 'kangaroos' and 'consorts.' How she can know things like this I'm not sure, she's been acting rather odd since she got sucked into that glowing ball. Whatever these consort things are, they're EVERYWHERE. Whoever planned their towns needs to be fired, shamed, and shattered. The place is so crowded I'm sure I'd be in genuine danger if I required oxygen, given that at any given point there's more consorts and fur than air at any given point.   
Pink Agate: Yikes, your land sounds a lot more cramped than mine. What's it called?   
Maxixe: According to Topaz, I'm on 'LoCaF, Land of Crowds and Frogs.' Not the foggiest what a frog is meant to be, but the crowds is more than living up to expectation.   
White Zircon: There's sure to be some correlation between the land name and the tasks for the gem sent to it. The crowds are likely an obstacle to make your tasks more difficult. Attempt to get to higher ground with your wings.   
Maxixe: I've already tried that. The gravity on this planet is demented. It doesn't effect my body of course, gem physiology and all that, but it destabilizes my liquid wings before I can get high enough to see anything. I tried to order Topaz to help me up but she's being maddeningly insubordinate.   
Pink Agate: The sprites are only allowed to help us so much. They literally can't do or say certain things.   
Maxixe: A likely story.   
Pink Agate: No need to get ornery with your allies. We're on the same side with this.. whatever it is. Just try to stay calm. Maybe figure out what 'frog' means. Maybe ask the locals?   
Maxixe: Well obviously I was going to, I didn't need to be told to.   
Pink Agate: You're welcome hun ( ˘ ³˘)   
Maxixe: UGH  
(

* * *

)  
Moon Goddessprite had told Rhodochrosite when they'd arrived where they were. 

LoLaF, Land of Loneliness and Floods. What significance the name had remained unknown to her, but one thing became clear to the fusion almost immediately; there was danger in this place. 

Three imps had gotten into inside almost immediately. It hadn't been hard of course, her home was a tunnel, and was now effectively an open stone cylinder sitting on a damp, brown, wide open grassland. 

It had taken Rhodi little effort to get rid of them of course, her large ornate sword scattered them into piles of grist. 

Knowing that there would likely be greater threats than this little welcome committee awaiting her, she retrieved some of her long stored ore and set to work. 

The following hour or so was a combination of alchemy with the new machine she'd been given by the game and forging with her own devices. 

Imps would attempt to attack her every so often, so she was never short of grist. Finally, she finished it. Her sword had been reforged far greater than it already was. 

The game labeled it as The Prismatic Pulwar. An opportunity to test it was presented almost immediately. A much tougher looking enemy had arrived just as Rhodi was leaving what was left of her tunnel. 

It was a good fifteen feet long with six legs spaced evenly along its serpentine body. It had a bright yellowish color as opposed to the black and blues that had been showing up on the imps. 

The health bar labeled it an Amber Basilisk. It had mechanical parts along its body, and what looked like foliage growing across it. It opened its fanged mouth and let out an energy bolt. Rhodochrosite blocked the shot with her sword, pleased with the success. 

She charged forward, cleaving through vines that sprung up around her, having dug into the ground at the basilisk's feet. She jumped, bringing down her sword with all of her strength, slicing the monster in two and leaving a gash in the ground beneath it. 

The odd brown grass seemed to ooze red from the impact. Rhodi collected the grist and charged off into her land to see what it had for her.  
(

* * *

)  
River's staff came down on the cobalt imp's head, reducing it to grist. 

The purple pearl had refused to leave the busted up ruins of the spire after it had been teleported to a new land, one that her Morganite informed her was called LoKaB, Land of Kings and Beartraps. 

The meaning of this wasn't forthcoming, slightly on account of her refusing to so much as peek out at the world around her. 

She hoped the monsters that kept crawling inside would just stop, but they wouldn't. 

Every few minutes more of them would crawl in to fight her. Every few encounters the colors would change and they would become stronger. 

The one that had frightened River the most was a metallic creature with eight long, thin, pointed legs connected to a central body that was little more than a mechanical mouth of pointed fangs. 

It appeared to be about on the mental level of a flash robanoid, but it had taken far longer to defeat than any of the others. 

Morganitesprite had nothing positive to say about any of these victories. She simply continued to read from what few books hadn't been destroyed by the spire's entry to the new land. 

She ignored most of River's questions, and didn't elaborate much when pressed. River attempted to get more information, but couldn't pull together the courage to speak with any force to her Morganite. 

She didn't have any real plan for what to do. She figured she'd wait inside for a moment when the monsters stopped coming and ask her friends what to do through the communicater; if they ever did stop.   
(

* * *

)  
Emerald’s visor kept her eyes shielded from the blazing light of LoGaS as she marched across the sand, blaster in hand. 

She had no idea where she was, or how she had gotten here. But she did know one thing. 

After those meteors had shown up, but before the whole crew appeared on this burning sand pit of a planet, Emerald had seen the Spinel. She’d been fiddling with some machine. 

What it had done, why Green Spinel would do this, Emerald didn’t know and could fathom caring. 

As she made it towards what looked like a marge, angular ziggurat for shelter and to regroup, she was certain that the Green Spinel was responsible for this. 

And even if she never made it back to homeworld, she would make certain the Green Spinel paid for what she had done.


	11. Disgression, In Many Forms

Imperial Jade had blasted through the imps that had appeared to fight her with ease; surprising even herself with the power she had. 

She’d always known she would be physically stronger as one, but she’d never really had any opportunity to know how much. If the absolute murder canyon she’d carved through the imps and other underlings who’d appeared to stop her were any indicaiton: very. 

She’d picked up from her sprite that she was on a planet called LoSaM, Land of Screams and Marble. 

Seemed like a rather foreboding land, but so far she'd not heard many screams; save for the noises the imps made before she either crushed them under foot or sent them flying with a punch. 

There was plenty of marble on offer though. The forested area she’d arrived in had large slabs of it about the place, and when she finally found what looked like a town, it was made almost entirely out of it.

“Odd to hear you actually talking by the way.” Imperial Jade said to her sprite. 

“Odd to be able to.” The Song Stone admitted, “But I think I like it. Hope its not too bothersome.” 

Imperial Jade chuckled, “You were constructed to have a marvelous voice, I doubt I’d get bored of hearing it.” She said. 

They arrived at the edge of the town. It was very… primitive, though the marble gave it a more grand look at a glance. Imperial Jade rose her fists when she saw the population before her sprite informed her that they were not hositles. 

“Oh.. sorry, never seen anything like these creatures before..” She said sheepishly. 

“Should perhaps have warned you ahead of time, but I seem literally incapable of doing so. These chameleon folk are the consorts of this land. They live here and, while not players of Scrust, are just as at risk to the monsters of LoSaM as you. Perhaps more so.” 

Imperial Jade nodded, figuring that talking with these creatures would be a good place to start getting to the bottom of things.

(

* * *

)

Ceylon sat down with her communicator. Her Carnaliens had fused together, and were currently protecting their sapphire as she spoke with the other gems. 

With the three of them fused together, the merciless mace and raw power of the strikes made it impossible for any of the enemies to get anywhere near Ceylon. 

The three of them weren’t entirely sure where they were, nor were they certain why their sapphire was currently glowing and floating, but she assured them that everything was fine, and they trusted her as always. 

Ceylon: I’ve reached LoPaL safely. I’m quite certain everyone else has reached their lands.   
Lazurite: LoPaL?   
Ceylon: land of Prophecy and Limits, my personal land as a hero of time.   
Lazurite: Hero.. of time?   
Ceylon: Forgive the flowery language. I’m already naturally inclined towards it, and being my own sprite seems to have only amplified it.   
R: You’re your own sprite? Is that a thing that can happen?   
Ceylon: Certainly seems so. While this comes with the drawback of the enemies having access to my future vision, it’s an acceptable price for the greater knowledge granted by the sprite, even if I can’t articulate it all verbally. Combined with my innate future sight, and my coming time based abilities, I’ll prove to have been a crucial move.   
Olive: I’m going to need clarification on several things.   
R: I mean, it seems pretty clear that these enemies get the powers of whatever we put into the sprite, but that's about all I got from it.   
Ceylon: All Scrust players are considered to be heroes of the world, each a hero a different aspect of the world. I can see vaguely what all of us are, but as I’m sure you’ve seen with your own sprites, I can only say so much. What I can do is ask about the progress with the task I gave to the two mechanics of the party.   
Olive: It was coming along well before we entered, just needs some touching up. Is it possible for me and R to meet up for it?   
Ceylon: Indeed. There are Gates that players can pass through to reach the lands of other players. You’ll need to find the right one however.   
R: I’ll get things ready for you Olive.   
Olive: In route. 

Ceylon nodded and closed the communication, knowing that her timing would have to be perfect going forward; and not just because of her aspect’s dependance on it. 

She did, thankfully, have time to spare to watch her fused Carnelian utterly destroy a few more monsters.. 

(

* * *

)

Caroline’s axe had been brought out almost immediately upon entering this new world. Granted she’d initially been trying to cut up Thornsprite. 

In retrospect, she should have put something in with a mouth so it could speak. Lacking one, the hovering thorny vine bush had needed to assemble its vines into words to communicate before Caroline either killed her or got absorbed into her. 

Apparently sprites didn't just merge with the first thing they touched, but also the second. 

Caroline wasn’t sure this was true, but didn’t want to risk it, and had heard out what the sprite had to say. It explained the basics, telling her that she was LoDaD, Land of Doves and Demons. 

What this meant was well beyond the rose quartz, but the good news came by almost immediately. At current, her only objective seemed to be to destroy any and all enemies. 

Finally, after all these thousands of years, she could fight. She didn’t even see the first imp, having destroyed it with her initial charge out into the land from the rocky slab she’d rode in on. 

She cleaved through several more imps on her way deeper into LoDaD, which was proving to be a very barren environment. 

And not naturally barren either. Even after all these years, Caroline could still recognize the aftermath of a large scale battle when she saw one. Whatever the battle was, she was quite certain it was nothing to do with these creatures. They were too.. Mindless. 

Too unorganized to be soldiers of any kind. They could certainly be strong on occasion though, which Caorline learned upon getting nailed by the kick of a much larger monster, the health bar identifying it as an Amber Ogre. It let out a sickening roar, its many limbs flailing out in different directions. 

A mechanical attachment at its shoulder rose up and fired plasma shots at Caroline. She deflected with her axe, destroying several imps by pure accident in the process. 

She ducked under a strike from the ogre from one of the extending extra limbs. Thick, thorny vines stretched out from its body towards Caroline. 

She cut through them almost effortlessly. She’d spent eons cutting away that foliage with her axe, and with it gone, she curled up and launched herself; a classic quartz attack. 

She fired herself into the ogre’s shoulder, destroying the mechanical appendage, then swung her axe down at the extra arm, lopping it off of the ogre’s body. 

It hissed, stumbling back away from Caroline. 

It planted one foot down hard, and sand began to swirl across the ground, rising up around Caroline and trapping her, squeezing around her. Caroline grit her teeth, straining against the grip of the sand for several moments before finally the sand gave way, practically bursting away from her. 

She launched herself towards the ogre’s head, this time with her axe out; effectively turning herself into a high speed buzzsaw. 

The ogre’s head split in two from the impact, the ogre collapsing into a pile of those different colored crystal things that all the enemies seemed to convert into. 

She was confused that single bodies seemed to contain multiple gems, even more confused to see how they seemed to vanish when she touched them. She didn’t dwell too much on it, proceeding forward. 

Before long, she found that her previous assessment was correct. She’d been going through battlegrounds, and now had found the combatants..

(

* * *

)

White Corundum was used to being confused. 

In fact she was pretty sure she’d get nervous if she ever wasn’t. But even for her, she was truly lost in terms of what was happening. 

She couldn’t recall ever being outside the white room, and suddenly the roof of it was gone, showing a bright blue sky above. Corundum just stared at it for.. She wasn’t even sure how long.

She might have just kept staring if Shardsprite hadn’t gotten fed up and levitated her up and out of the room. She hadn’t known they could do that. 

They floated through the ceiling and followed silently as Corundum looked around the thick, lush forest they’d been brought to. 

White Corundum tried to ask where they were, but lacking a mouth, Shardsprite couldn’t exactly do much talking. 

Plenty of fighting however. Corundum watched with awe as the multi-armed monstrosity dispatched several threats before she could even be certain of what they were. 

It continued to protect White Corundum as she wandered aimlessly through the foliage, trying to get to grips with what was happening. 

After some time, she realized part of the problem. Despite how odd her situation was, it wasn’t Shardsprite or the plant life or the monsters or the sky that was making her feel.. Off. 

It felt like something was missing, like a thread had been cut on some level that she couldn’t get her head around.

(

* * *

)

Hessonite’s teeth were threatening to shatter from how hard she was grinding them together. She’d found her way across the chrome landscape to what looked to be a town. 

She was unsurprised to find no gems there, but very surprised to find a local population. Obviously much lower in terms of civilization, and struggling with the curse of being organic, they were non-hostile, which made them immediately preferable to the various monsters she’d found outside of the towns. 

All her training and instincts told her to do away with these organics immediately, but she was quite certain that doing so would attract an entire swarm of those other monsters, and she couldn’t let such things slow her down, so for now the fuzzy, yellow, winged things got to live. 

She walked through what looked to be a market of some kind, fiddling with one of the few pieces of her equipment that she thankfully still had on her, trying to get the thing working. It had taken some damage from whatever had sent her flying back at the peridot’s workshop. 

“Care for some honey?” 

Hessonite strained against her instincts to avoid simply beheading the organic that dared to interrupt her business. Turning to it, she found it to be offering her what looked to be a jar of viscous golden liquid, glowing slightly. 

“And for what reason do you believe I would genuinely wish to consume your local energy sources?” Hessonite questioned with as much bile as she could muster. 

The organic didn’t seem phased by it, had eyes that looked to have not been phased by anything in quite a long time. It simply shrugged, “You look like you’ve got work to do. The honey helps. Keeps you focused. Keeps you going. Everyone here has some.” 

Hessonite scoffed at this, looking down at the jar, doubting that something created by an organic could be of any use to her or any gem. 

But… upon looking around, she had to admit, the organics did all look to be hard at work. Pointless work of course, but hard at it nonetheless; laser focused. She’d seen quite massive structures on her way here, ones that surprised her to see created by organics. 

Perhaps they had found their way to something useful. She supposed that worst case scenario she could use her shapeshifting to dispel it from her. 

“I’ll accept, if only to see what you organics consider ‘useful’.” She offered a block of what she presumed to be the local currency, having stocked up quite a lot of it from destroying things on her way. 

While she’d not been able to collect the various colored crystalline objects, she’d been able to gather up coins and bars. 

The organic seemed to accept it, and gave her the jar; as well as two more, evidently the amount she had purchased. She opened the first and, after a long hesitation, tipped it into her mouth. 

She was surprised by the sweet taste, and even more surprised by the sudden sharpness in her vision, in her hearing; in her everything. She felt infinitely more aware of herself and the world around her. 

She immediately set to fixing her device, and what had taken her several minutes prior was done in mere moments now. The machine pinged to life, showing the approximate coordinates of all local gems. 

She smiled, knowing that now she could get down to business.


	12. Prospit Dreamers

Caroline rubbed her temples in frustration. 

She'd figured out the meaning to her land's name quickly after discovering the battlefield. Once there, she'd found two groups in the midst of a battle; one which came to a temporary halt upon her arrival. 

Both seemed to have been expecting her, though Caroline wasn't sure how. The why of it quickly became apparent: both wanted her to help them defeat the other side. 

As she was a soldier, Caroline was more than keen to do so; but therein lay the rub. Both groups claimed to be her land's consorts, both sides referring to the other as demons. 

Caroline couldn't tell visually. Namely because she wasn't entirely certain what a 'demon' was, but also because, as a gem, she had no innate responses to their appearances. 

The demons could just as likely be the snow white feathered folks that her sprite referred to as 'doves' as the fanged, clawed, reptilian creatures as far as she knew. 

When it had taken Caroline longer than the two groups were willing to wait to decide, the two returned to battling while waiting for Caroline to decide. 

And that's where the quartz gem had been since, struggling to determine by any means which of these two groups she was meant to attack. Struggling harder than she'd first realized, she thought, as after some time, she felt herself starting to stay. 

She tried to stop herself, but before she could properly figure out what was happening, she collapsed to the ground. She recognized sleep of course, she'd resorted to it several times while trapped on Earth, but had never felt it come on so suddenly and intensely before..  
(

* * *

)  
Lazurite panted as she flew, attempting to put as much distance between herself and the monsters as possible. Smoke Demons. 

That's what their health bars called them anyway. Their bodies were solid, but swirled around like smoke, and let them be almost invisible in the thick smog that clouded the air. 

Lazurite wasn't sure how many of them she'd actually been fighting, nor how many-if any-she'd defeated. She'd had little to work with. Without any source of water, all she'd been able to fight with were her wings. 

In the end, when she felt fatigue set in, she'd decided that this particular boring section of sky-in spite of its occasionally lovely music-was not a hill she was prepared to die on. 

As she flew, she found herself getting tired faster than she ought to have been. She'd passed out once while on the job, having overtaxed herself trying to level a mountain in one go. But even then it hadn't been as intense as she was feeling now. 

She'd never known combat was this draining before, and it was all she could do to reach solid ground before her eyes fell shut and she collapsed to the ground, unconscious.  
(

* * *

)  
Green Spinel was getting very, very tired of LoGaD. As it happened, even as a gem, she very much could feel the heat radiating down from the various suns overhead beating down onto her. 

The only good thing about them is that, with such intense light, it was very easy to tell when an enemy was approaching from overhead by way of their shadow. 

More common than anything else were the vultures. Golden Vultures going by their health bars. Large winged things that looked to be made of solid, plated gold. She'd learned pretty quickly that, despite appearance, they very much were not gold; or if they were, they had a layer of lead beneath.

As she'd attempted to hoof it across the sand, she'd quickly learned just how hard it was for things to hurt her. 

She'd always known how unnaturally-even by gem standards-her body's ability to move was. But she'd never considered it's use in combat until now. She'd leveled an entire group of Sulfur Imps with a stomp by inflating her foot large enough to get all at once. 

That had been almost fun, perhaps would have been fun if her body had not been immediately tackled by one of the Vultures. They always went straight for her gem for some reason. 

Spinel was quite certain for some time that it was exclusively to be annoying until she found herself at the edge of a massive pit. 

A massive pit full of gold. Many treasures actually, but gold above all. It had to be a good hundred feet in every direction from the center, and composed primarily of gold dust. Golden coins, bars, sculptures, and other treasures of every kind the Green Spinel could think of were littered about the place. 

“Those vultures have a nest..” She said to herself, “They collect treasure and bring it here.” 

“That would certainly explain why they keep trying to grab your gem.” Nephritesprite said, nearly making Spinel jump; the green gem having forgotten she was here. 

“Right.. wait.. is that..” Her eyes widened as she recognized some of the gemstones in the pit of treasure. It was the other Nephrites! 

“They must have been poofed by the crash when we arrived,” Nephritesprite realized, “And the Vultures brought them here.” 

Green Spinel nodded and took a breath, stretching out her arm to reach the gems. Her vision started to blur as she did. 

Having been cooped up in a ship for so long, she didn't have a lot of experience stretching to this extent. Or maybe it was the intense heat making her lose focus. Those suns really were troubleso... 

“..Spinel?” Nephritesprite questioned as the gem collapsed in the sand.  
(

* * *

)  
White Zircon had been about ready to offer to trade her land to anyone else in this game. 

LoNaE had proved to have more direct combat than she was ready for, and while she trusted her battle screens-even more so now that she had augmented them with alchemy, increasing their strength and durability-she was still unused to actually fighting. 

Thankfully, after the initial few waves of enemies, the enemies had let up and allowed her to go searching outside her office. 

She'd found odd structures that Geodesprite referred to as 'trees.' An entire landscape of them, blanketed in what seemed to be perpetual darkness. 

After some exploration, the Zircon had found her way to a town and, after being assured that the creatures were non-hostile, approached to introduce herself. 

She was semi-surprised to find that the consorts, sugar gliders according to Geode, could speak effectively with her. She was surprised more to find their enthusiasm at her explaining her trade was law. 

“Our land has been needing good law workers for some time.” One of the consorts had explained. LoNaE was apparently all about rules and regulations. Lately, though, things had been getting harder to keep track of, and a little bit twisted. 

If she were to guess, she'd have to presume it was the result of everyone having to drop what they were doing to hide from monsters every so often. 

Nevertheless, she was more than happy to take on a non-combat challenge for once. It was only now, several hours later, that she realized just how much she had bitten off that she couldn't chew. 

The laws hadn't so much gotten out of hand so much as they've never been picked up. It was as though several thousands of years had gone by without anyone so much as glancing at the legal code, let alone double checking. 

She was certain she could handle it though. She just needed to rest her eyes for a moment for refocus herself. 

At least that's what she had told herself before promptly passing out at the desk they'd given her to work with.  
(

* * *

)  
Pink Lace and her Rubies had just started to lose patience with their little fairy friend when they seemed to reach something new. 

Rather than the towns though, it appeared to be a large cave entrance. “That's this?” The agate questioned, confused. 

“This is the entrance to the Mines of Mutualism,” the sparkling creature said reassuringly, “Here, the locals work together and get to know one another. It's even better than a town!” 

Pink Agate looked down the dark tunnel, then back to the fairy. Something felt... off. 

The Rubies cheered excitedly, starting to rush for the entrance. Before they crossed the threshold into the cave, Pink Lace called for them to stop. 

They all tumbled into one another, collapsing to the ground in a pile, but none went inside. 

The fairy turned to Pink Lace, “Whats wrong? Don't you want to meet the locals?” 

Pink Lace, her eyes narrowed, reached slowly for her gem, “I'm not so sure we can trust this.” 

“What, do you think I'm lying?” The fairy questioned, sounding hurt. 

“No, I'm sure if we go in there we'll meet the locals,” Pink Lace said, “The local monsters I'd assume.” Pink Lace Agate pulled out her flog, taking a stance for battle. 

The fairy sighed in annoyance, the lights fading and, with the illusory reflections from the gemstones around the environment, the creatures true-far more insect-like and hateful looking form came into view; along with its health bar, naming it a Sparkling Fay. 

Seeing confirmation of her hunch, the agate rushed forward, the strips of her cat of nine tails heating up as the hooks began to glow from the plasma generating across it. 

The Fay fired off a ball of light, though Pink Lace couldn't be sure how powerful it actually was because she never felt it, batting the attack away as she got within range, lashing the monster and killing it instantly. 

She was close enough to auto-collect the grist that it burst into. The Rubies got to their feet, feeling slightly ashamed for almost falling for an ambush, but that feeling driven away by the awe of seeing Pink Lace Agate in action, weapon out and blazing with energy. 

“Lets find our own to town.” She said with a smile. 

The Rubies smiled, locking hands and fusing into a single, massive Ruby, their five clubs forming into a massive melee weapon that more closely resembled a massive, gnarled tree. 

They encountered a not insignificant amount of monsters as they practically stampeded their way to town. 

Perhaps the fifteen foot high Ruby was less conspicuous or perhaps the Sparkling Fay had specifically kept them away from other monsters for the long con, but between the two of them, it was practically a cake walk. 

The town they'd fought their way to was populated by short, stalking, fuzzy, long clawed creatures. They walked up right and had large, odd nostrils. 

Pebblesprite referred to them as moles. As they looked around, the Rubies having unfused to avoid panicking the locals, Pink Lace began to stumble, evidently having worn herself out. 

How, the Rubies weren't sure, but immediately Grip and Core fused, lifting Pink Lace up to carry her while she rested.  
(

* * *

)  
Maxixe stumbled into the building, hardly even noticing the complex machines around her as she looked for somewhere she could rest. 

She hated LoCaF. Hated it with a venom. Of this she could be quite, quite certain. She'd tried speaking with the 'consorts' as they were calmed. 

But the camels had been as unhelpful and dim as Maxixe was sure most organic life was, leaving her to search around the entire planet on her own. 

'Hardly fitting reception for an aqua marine.' Maxixe huffed in frustration as she'd explored, or rather attempted to explore, the cramped, over full towns the consorts were stuffed into. 

She eventually grew too fed up with in, and when she caught sight of a non-crowded area, she made a beeline for it. Outside the towns, it seems, were not only not cramped, they were wide open and quite expansive. 

She'd been a few paragraphs into a rant at Topazsprite about how stupid the organics were for not expanding their controlled territory into this area when the reason they didn't made itself known. 

Having landed surrounded by so much populated town, she'd not known about or seen the monsters until now, and nearly panicked when the first imps started pouncing on her; let alone the ogre and later on creatures Topazsprite claimed to be specific to her own land, bubbling, sticky, disgusting slime beasts referred to by their health bars as Amalgamate Slime and Rolling Tar respectively. 

Her zero point scope let her handle the normal monsters if not effortlessly at least easily; but the oozing, shifting, semi-liquid bodies of the slime beasts were too difficult for her to keep focused on. 

“Bet if I had one of those fancy wands I could have made short work of them.” She grumbled to herself as she dropped into sitting position against a metal wall. 

She'd found this building mid-battle while flying, a massive structure with the face of another organic scrawled onto it. She'd made a beeline for it, already tired from fighting and outright exhausted by the time she had arrived. Topazsprite had to shut the door for her, as by the time they caught up, Maxixe was already passed out, c

urled up against the wall.  
(

* * *

)  
Caroline's eyes opened to a golden ceiling above her. 

Sitting up, she found herself to be dressed in a golden gown with a crescent mark on it, sitting in a matching bed contained within a matching room. 

She couldn't remember where she was, but felt like she'd been asleep for a very, very long time. She tried to think about what she'd been doing, but her focus was broken by a knocking at her window. 

Going to it, a smile spread across the quartz gem's face as she found Lazurite outside it. 

Cloudy as she was, and despite not having seen her in person before, she could somehow recognize the floating blue gem outside her window, and opened it to let her in. 

This resulted in her instead being pulled out, Lazurite giggling as she flew up the side of the massive golden spire Caroline had been inside of, the pink gem in such awe of the situation she didn't take note of the fact that Lazurite was flying. 

Such a thing wouldn't be shocking of course, were she not somehow doing it without her wings out. 

Lazurite pulled her up to the roof of the spire, sitting the both of them down onto it. Wordlessly, the two found themselves laying next to one another, gazing up at the sky. 

The clouds were odd, never taking shapes but seeming to form images within regardless. The two watched together, feeling remarkably at peace...  
(

* * *

)  
Green Spinel's eyes fluttered open. She sat bolt upright in bed, looking around her bedroom. She couldn't remember the last time she'd been awake. 

She must have been being pretty lazy. A smile spread across her face as she considered how to make up for such lethargy. Her limbs coiled up like a spring and launched her out the nearest window. 

She fell a good forty feet to the ground from the spire she'd jumped from, her elastic body simply bouncing with the force of the impact, using the moment to land on her feet on a pedestal that may have been meant to be some kind of market table. 

The people, humanoid with pure white, carapace like bodies all looked to her as she did this, and with all eyes on her, she set to doing what she was made to do: perform. 

No jokes came to mind though.. and there were far more people here than on the ship. 

She couldn't reasonably make jokes about all of them on the spot. So instead, she settled for a spectacle. Even if she couldn't make jokes, she was still a Spinel. She could dance, she could sing, she could stretch, bend, and twirl. 

And as she set to it, she had a thought that she forgot just as quickly as it came. 'Finally, I can put on a *real* show..'  
(

* * *

)  
White Zircon woke in her bed, sitting up and stretching out. She looked around the golden room she woke in, and with a click of her tongue decided she ought to get back to work. 

She spared no thought to the gold colored dress she was in, heading out of her room and down the stairs to the main floor. 

She wasn't super certain where she was exactly, and was aware on some level she should be frightened or panicked or confused, but in the absence of all three, it seemed silly to try and force such feelings. So she focused instead on productivity. 

Looking around, she found herself to be in what she could only presume to be a very upper crust area. There would have to be some place for a society like this to keep its records, which could yield all kinds of useful information. 

With her mind set to it, it was remarkably easy to find. The white shelled folks living in this kingdom didn't seem to consider anyone present as being one to snoop, and as such the warehouse where records were kept was openly labeled. 

There would likely at least be guards, but the Green Spinel was currently drawing all the attention. Whether this was an intentional distract or not, Zircon appreciated the help as she slipped into the records hall.  
(

* * *

)  
Pink Lace watched Maxixe through the tower window. 

She'd woken some time ago, and after some initial exploring, had felt an urge to find the small blue gem. 

This place was lovely, but Maxixe tended to have... less than positive reactions to new things. 

She didn't want to have to fight an ally, but she wasn't going to sit back and ignore it if she posed a threat to this place. 

She watched Maxixe as she woke up, looked around, and... burst into tears. An immediately instinct to comfort her drove out all other thoughts, the agate pulling open the window and rushing in, going to the bed and cradling her against herself. 

Maxixe tensed at being grabbed suddenly, but was too overwhelmed by emotion to stop crying, and simply held onto Pink Lace as she sobbed. Pink Lace held her close, comforting her gently as she let it all out. 

Pink Lace wasn't sure why she was crying-though she had a few guesses-but whatever it was, she was willing to help her.


	13. Derse Dreamers

Olive watched across the metallic blue landscape of LoFaH. 

She'd set her attack drones to auto while she focused on tinkering with the last bits of her and Rhodochrosite's Ceylon assigned project. 

They'd need to meet up in person again to put everything they'd worked on together, but she could finish and polish what she had in the meantime. She would be glad to see her friend again. 

She was sure she'd be fine if the monsters on her land were similar to the ones here, but she'd gotten used to being worried when she went too long without hearing from her. 

Back on Homeworld, sudden radio silence from a gem could just as likely mean the gem in question had been hard as work as it could mean they'd been shattered for some act or another their superior deemed inadequate. 

She tried to put these thoughts out of her mind. Rhodi was strong. She'd be fine. The mental image of her friend tearing through hordes of monsters with that massive sword of hers brought a smile to the peridot's face. 

She didn't take the landscape in too much, save for the massive metal monster of a building in the distance. The tower was massive and build in an intriguing pattern. 

Looking ahead of her, she saw a town. It was build with similar architecture, though was clearly a town and not a massive super structure like what she'd seen in the distance. She'd ask the locals about it, she decided. 

But as she approached the town, her body and mind grew more and more tired. It was small at first, enough for her to ignore. 

But by the time Olive reached the town, she hardly noticed the consorts which Autosprite referred to as 'bees', ignoring their attempts to offer her a jar of odd viscous moon knows what in favor of finding an inn. She was barely on her feet by the time she reached the room. 

She'd never even seen a bed in her life, quite literally given her being a gem and not needing to sleep if she didn't wish to, but upon seeing it some ancient, buried instinct inside her told her its function without her needing to ask about it, and she collapsed onto it; snoring within seconds.  
(

* * *

)  
Rhodochrosite had made it quite far across the land before finding enemies that didn't go down in near enough one attack. 

Their health bars labeled them as Red, Brown, Spiked, and Hardened Goos respectively. 

Of them, Reds were the weakest, simply bubbling red puddles that couldn't accomplish much so long as they were dealt with fast. Browns were less goo and more solid, and backed quite the cinder block punch if not put down. The Spiked were most annoying, bent in odd shapes and flailing faster than anything else she'd come across thus far. 

Their spikes also absorbed quite a lot of the force of Rhodi's slashes, so took a bit more clever maneuvering to deal with. She'd only fought one Hardened Goo so far and genuinely didn't want to meet anymore. 

Slowest so far, but denser than the Brown Goo, hitting harder than the ogres, and most frighteningly, actually able to think and plan. 

The first time she'd seen it, she rushed it to take it out quick, thinking it was a Brown Goo, only to drop into a pit trap the thing had made by scooping at the ground with its solid extremities. 

It took quite a few tries to escape the pit, as the Hardened Goo waited at the edge and continually punted her back down when she was nearly free. Finally the fusion grew frustrated, throwing her sword like a javelin as her hands shifted into climbing hooks, letting her dart up quickly. 

The sword hadn't gotten deep into the Hardened Goo, so she shifted from spikes to a hammer and brought it down on the handle of her sword, driving it into the goo monster to kill it. 

Panting, and finding herself feeling far, far more tired than she should have even with the amount of fighting she'd been doing, the fusion gem took off towards what looked like a town; though when she reached it, she found no one out and about to confirm anything alive. 

There were buildings and structures, and nothing about the place looked abandoned. It looked more like it had been a normal town, but everyone had just bolted inside the moment Rhodochrosite approached. 

By this point though, Rhodi was far too tired to care. She stumbled to a park bench and collapsed onto it, barely having time to ask herself what was happening.  
(

* * *

)  
River stood, shaking, at the edge of the heavily damaged sea spire ruins. 

“Alright..” She said shakily, “I'm.. I'm going to do it. I'm going to head out there and explore.” The purple pearl was trying to convince herself more than Morganitesprite. 

Her Morganite simply rolled her eyes, either not believing her or frustrated that it had taken her this long. She couldn't look her Morganite in the eye after disappointing her so thoroughly. All she could do now was try and fix it. She brought out her staff, and finally stepped out of the spire into the grassy field outside. 

“Drop your weapon! Hands in the air!” A voice boomed immediately. 

River dropped her staff immediately, hands going up as several large, fuzzy, clawed humanoids popped out of a nearby house and marched on her. 

“Oh great, you've gone and alerted your consorts. Deal with these ursa ruffians yourself, otherwise you'll never learn.” Morganitesprite said, either not noticing River being marched off towards the building or not minding it. 

“W-where am I going?” She asked the consorts as they lead her to the building. 

“Trespassing on a royal courtyard is a serious offense,” the one in front of her said, “You're being brought to the servants' quarters to work off your sentence with hard labor.” 

“Oh, delightful!” River said. 

She said this genuinely, as being a servant is what she was literally made for, and if this was her land's challenge than she would have it in the bag. 

The consort behind her though seemed to take this as a sarcastic comment. 

At least she assumed so, as she could think of no other explanation for the strike she received to the back of the head that knocked her out near immediately.  
(

* * *

)  
Imperial Jade had found that the chameleon consorts of LoSaM had a very... discreet, method of socializing. 

Though the marble city they lived in seemed highly defensible and strong, they all seemed to live in fear not just of the creatures lurking in the wilderness beyond it, but of something.. else. 

Something that could be listening at any moment, and wouldn't hesitate to retaliate with extreme prejudice if given anything remotely resembling a reason. 

As a result, they'd developed a very indirect, secretive, and heavily implication and suggestion based method of communication to speak without risking being found out. The fusion gem just smiled at the realization of this. She was made ready for a land like this. 

Once she'd twigged why they spoke the way they did, communication was child's play. She fit into place with the locals like the missing four armed puzzle piece. 

Through careful socializing, Imperial Jade managed to learn that there were several major players to be aware of. 

LoSaM had a king and queen, though they... hadn't been themselves as of late, and there was something.. more living in their castle. 

There were two beings spoken of in equal amounts of horror; one known as the Denizen, the other the 'Black Goat.' 

Even the suggestion of either one's real name was the highest of social fopaux. True names were of little concern though so much as priority level. Both were spoken of as lurking beasts on or within the planet. 

Specifics were shaky, but the two seemed to be equally responsible, albeit not intentionally working together, for the fear in the consorts and the monsters roaming outside their cities. 

Lastly, and spoken of in remarkably clear terms, were Prospit and Derse, two kingdoms from different planets, their armies waging war on the planet between them, Skaia. 

Apparently, either the Denizen or Black Goat had used the smoke created from their war to darken the skies of LoSaM. Without Skaia's light, the plant-life began to die, and the other of the two was able to move in. 

Whichever was which, neither sounded good. More information would be needed, if not just more fire power than she had on hand. 

A little more shmoosing and and Imperial Jade found herself at the Old Alleyways; hidden pathways that made travel throughout the land trivial. 

They'd been mostly abandoned by consorts as of late do to the.. new residence. Imperial Jade could assume fairly easily that these new residence referred to monsters, and while she was entirely correct, she.. was not quite prepared to see the kind of monster in question. 

It was nothing like the underlings she'd fought through so easily up to now. 

She couldn't tell where it started and where it stopped, looking at it at all was hard without her head aching or stomach turning. 

She'd never understood why other gems were so disgusted by organic beings; but looking at this.. this solid yet flowing puddling of meat and flesh, with too many eyes where there shouldn't have been, their only appendages being long, slick tentacles that seemed more to ooze from its body rather than have grown from it like arms or legs... she could understand the kind of bile they felt. 

It's health bar referred to it as a Grimy Spawn, and if ever a name of these monsters had been accurate, it was here. 

It was perhaps the first monster to pose a real challenge, but not for durability. 

It took only a single, powerful strike from the fusion gem to kill it. It was getting close enough to actually hit center mass-and building up the willpower to make physical contact with the thing-that posed an issue. 

What the creature lacked in health and durability, it made up for a dozen or more times over with raw strength. 

One hit from its tentacles could send her flying back several feet, and she was quite sure that if three or more of them managed to grab her at a time, it would be the end of her. She had to avoid and evade, fighting defensively for once instead of blitzing through. 

She struck at its tentacles to damage them, twirled out of the way of its attacks, and when an opening was finally made, charged in; bringing down all four fists onto its body. 

The Alleyways were silent with it gone, and with nothing to focus on, Imperial Jade finally noticed how tired she'd become. She sat down against the wall to catch her breath and rest her eyes from looking at that thing for too long. 

She must have lost track of time though, as at some point while sitting there, she drifted off to sleep...  
(

* * *

)  
White Corundum didn't like the fairies. They were mean. 

The glittering little flying folks were buzzing around the massive, seemingly never ending forest of LoGaF. 

They were pretty looking.. but so.. mean! 

They laughed at her for no reason, making fun of everything she did or tried to do, and Shardsprite refused to fight them for some reason, so White Corundum was left to their own with them. When she'd reached a town amidst the forest, and found the insectoid people living among them, calling themselves the 'ant-folk,' she'd been excited. 

Finally, someone she could talk to that wouldn't be mean and her sprite didn't need to attack.. or at least, that's what she'd assumed. But the consorts of her land were about as keen on White Corundum as the fairies were. 

They didn't make fun of her or laugh at her though.. they just seemed angry at her, afraid of her even, and she couldn't understand why. She hadn't done anything to these ant people.. she didn't think she had. She didn't remember doing anything to them... had she forgotten? 

Her mind had been getting hazier and hazier ever since she'd arrived in the game, but she didn't recall any full on black outs where she could have done anything bad to the locals. 

But every time she found more ant folk, they just shouted at her, cursed at her, told her to leave and even chased her off when she didn't move fast enough. 

“Can't be having your kind in these parts!” They hissed at her. “You'll only bring ruin!” 

Disallowed from the towns, White Corundum would be forced back into the forests where the fairies were waiting to laugh, mock, and after awhile even attack her with little glowing energy bolts or strange words that made the trees or vines reach out and hit her. 

She tried to run, but the forest was so overgrown and the fairies so nimble and quick through the forest that she could never get away from them.

Eventually she just collapsed, curling up at the base of a tree, sobbing. The fairies laughed uproarious at this, and seemed to find her too pathetic to even continue attacking, dispersing. 

Or perhaps they'd done just enough damage for Shardsprite to be allowed to step in. Either way, she remembered the attacks stopping for some time while she laid curled up against the tree, sobbing. 

At some point during her crying fit, she passed out.  
(

* * *

)  
Ceylon watched with a smile as her Carnelians made short work of monsters of her land. 

They were just as power on offense as defense, and had steadily bashed a path through any and all monsters out of her way. 

The only stalling point were any monsters that had taken on either Desert Glass' sand powers or her own future sight-at which point she stepped in herself to attack, relying on sprite power blasts as her ice powers were quite weak-and the Crystal Guards. 

Unlike proper gems, Crystal Guards were entirely solid, their bodies a hundred percent crystal all the way through, but walking and fighting. They were extremely durable, very strong, and could fight with proper weapons. 

The Carnelians had to work together to beat them down, and after the first two, switched to just fusing every time one cropped up. Finally, they reached their destination. 

“My sapphire.. whats that?” One of them questioned as Ceylon floated up towards the spinning, shifting flat disk hovering a few feet off the top of a hill they'd fought their way up to. 

“This is a Gate,” She said, “All lands within this world have them, and they act like our warp pads, sending us from one planet to another. I have business to attend to on another land. Remain here and guard the Gate until my return.” 

“Yes my sapphire!” All three Carnelians said in unison, forming a defensive position around the Gate as Ceylon passed through. 

On the other side, though, Ceylon felt a unique exhaustion that was not normal for either sprites or gems. 

With the knowledge of a sprite and from her visions though, she'd known it was coming; though she didn't know the specifics. 

“May as well get it over with quickly.” She said, finding a safe spot for herself to drift off to sleep so she, or rather her Dream Self, could awaken on Derse.  
(

* * *

)  
White Corundum opened her eyes with some difficulty. 

She was so.. so groggy. She felt like she'd been asleep for years. Had she ever been awake. The room was pitch black, the only light coming from a bared window. 

No.. as she managed to force her head up from her bed, she realized that the room wasn't black, it was purple. But it was charred and covered in ash, like an explosion had gone off inside. 

The bed she was sitting on was heavily damaged, the blankets little more than burnt up scraps and the frame having collapsed, burnt, to the floor. It was less of a bed and more of a bed's roasted remains. 

Looking down at her clothes, she found that her own body was covered in ashes as well, her normally paper white skin practically pitch black. 

Unlike the ashes around the room though, thin enough to see the purple walls beneath and having blown away entirely from breezes in some places, the ashes on herself seemed to be thick and clinging tightly to her, as she couldn't see her body beneath it, and it wouldn't rub off of her arms or legs no matter how hard she tried. 

She was confused by this, by a lot of things actually, but the randomly selected confusing thing that stuck out in her mind was how light she felt. 

If she were caked in this much ash dust she should feel weighed down.. but she felt lighter than she ever had in her life. 

She was so tired though.. she laid back down, her dark hair bundled up beneath her. She realized she wasn't wearing her helmet as she drifted back to sleep..  
(

* * *

)  
Imperial Jade woke with a start, sitting bolt upright in bed. She frantically looked over herself in alarm, then relaxed, letting out a sigh of relief. She was fine. 

Well, she was locked in a purple room with bared windows and a vault door, dressed in a dark purple cloak, but she was still together, that was all that mattered. 

Smiling at this, she practically sprung out of bed, beginning to dance and spin and jump. She wasn't usually this overwhelmed by her emotions, but she was here for some reason, and too pleased with herself, too pleased to be herself, she couldn't stop herself. 

She didn't know how long she danced and sang, only that she ignored the voices from the other side of the locked door telling her to stop. 

They wouldn't open the door, that risked her getting out, and they wouldn't seriously try to stop her fun, as that would give her a reason to want to break out, and she was quite sure that they were quite sure that they couldn't stop her if she wanted to. 

So she danced. She sang. She laughed. And she didn't stop until she had her fill. When she had, she jumped and collapsed onto her bed, still giggling. 

“Never going back.” She told herself, “We're together. Forever.”  
(

* * *

)  
River's eyes fluttered open in her bed. She sat up, looking around curiously at her purple room and purple gown. 

Her eyes narrowed. She'd only awake for thirty seconds and was already a hundred and ten percent done with this whole situation. 

Seeing the bars on the window and the locks on the door only fanned the flame that ignited upon her waking up. River took out her staff, taking a stance in front of the door. 

“Gang way assholes!” This was all the guard on the other side of the door heard before losing consciousness as the vault locked door to River's room was forced out hard, slamming into the back of their head. 

River marched out, twirling her staff with a smirk as she looked over her captors. They were odd looking. Not gems to be sure. 

They were humanoid, but with thick and pitch black shell like skin and smooth features. And the ones immediately outside her room were of the bulkier variety, armed with heavy militia weapons. 

They charged, presumably to put her back into her room, but River was having none of that, not tonight. She sidestepped and swung her staff down, striking the leading guard's lower legs and causing them to fall hard onto the ground. 

She jumped back, letting the second guard trip over the first and striking his head with her staff to keep him down. The third crashed into the second and was struck in the jaw and dropped. 

The purple pearl repeated this process more or less her entire way down the stairs and to the front door, which she forced open even easier than she had the door to her room. 

She smiled, dispelling her weapon and sauntering out into the cool night air. As she walked, she drew quite a bit of attention; which she wasn't surprised by. 

One of the shell folk, a very clearly female one given her figure, approached her. She had malice in her eyes, but whatever she was going to say or did went unsaid or undone, as the moment she was within arms reach, River pulled in her close, turning her, dipping her, and leaning in to the most intense, heated kiss the shelled woman had ever been a part of; the Carapacian woman far too stunned to react. 

She pulled away after nearly a minute, sending her off with a slight twirl as she made her way into a nearby bar. 

The woman stared in the direction she'd gone, the malice gone from her expression. She weighed her options, shrugged, ditched her knife, and followed River into the bar.  
(

* * *

)  
Ceylon woke with a loud, unladylike yawn, and if anyone was bothered Ceylon would be happy to politely tell them to fuck off. 

She stretched out her arms and legs and.. oh.. oh right she had legs. For some reason she'd thought she didn't.. that she'd gone all ghostly and glowy. 

But nope, she was her normal, solid self; save for her normal blue dress having been replaced with a deep purple one. She looked around the room, determining in record time and with no need for future vision just how cosmically bored she was. 

She looked through the bars of her window down at the street down below the spire where she was trapped. 

“Well hello there~” The sapphire purred at the sight of the bulkier, stronger looking of the carapace folk down below. 

Prepping for war, there were plenty of soldiers out and about. Ceylon had never been more disappointed in having only one eye than when she spotted a group of the buffer soldiers without shirts. Her future vision could fill in the gaps of course, but it also, disappointingly, didn't show her down there with them. 

That couldn't be right, and she wouldn't stand for it. She tried the door, only to find it just as locked as the window. Her frown and desperation both growing, she shook, knocked, pounded, spoke then shouted through the door. 

She could tell with her future vision there were people on the other end-ones she wouldn't have minded having on the same side of the door as herself-but her pleas fell on deaf ears even as she told them so. 

She slumped against the locked door, disappointed and frustrated.  
(

* * *

)  
Rhodochrosite woke up and stretched out. Her muscles were stiff. Must have been out for some time. No time like the present to get back to work. 

Alas, the purple prison room she'd been locked up in didn't seem to have much in the way of supplies. 

Thankfully, she never went anywhere without her tools. From the gem on her right arm, she brought out her forge. It slammed into the ground, the weight of it and the molten metal within cracking the floor. That's what they got for shoddy work Rhodi felt. She brought out her anvil, tools, and spare metal out as well; using the shattered up material from the floor as well. 

She thankfully, last minute, realized that the purple gown she was wearing wasn't a part of her natural form and would indeed burn up in the heat of her forge. 

She placed the clothing in her gem, leaving her wearing nothing as she set to work melting down and shaping metal; her bare body bathed in the warm light of the forge and soon glistening slightly from the sweat. 

She didn't want to waste any time specifically shifting her form to re-clothe herself, especially since she was all alone up here. 

It certainly wasn't her fault if a certain peridot happened to have a spire across from her, with a window pointed in her direction to give her a perfect view of what was happening inside. 

And if, by chance, such a peridot happened to be an olive peridot, it was of no mind to Rhodi as she set to her work, making motions that, admittedly, weren't the best for working on her metal, but would, potentially, make excellent poses for anyone-and Rhodi most certainly didn't know of anyone who might be doing so, nor what they'd be doing with their hands as they did-who happened to see her as she worked. 

And the knowing smirk she got on her face whenever she was looking away from the window, and its returning to a straight face whenever it was within line of sight of said window and the aforementioned potential green gems, merely a coincidence.


	14. Building

Olive had stared at the Gate for a good twenty minutes, studying it skeptically before checking with the chat to make certain it would work as intended. 

According to Ceylon, the Gates did indeed work as advertised. Taking a breath and focusing on her faith in Ceylon, she stepped through. 

There was a flash she could see even with her eyes closed and a feeling similar to that of a warp pad, and she came out on the other end. 

She looked around and winced at the sight of Rhodochrosite's land, unable to believe she'd had to put up with so much organic nonsense. She set her drones to auto so they'd attack any non-gem entity that moved and proceeded forward. 

She'd used the alchemiter to make herself a hand-cannon as well, and used it to blast the bloody grass out of her path so she didn't have to touch it. 

The drones orbited around Olive, firing at any and all underlings that came within range, in many cases before they'd even noticed Olive or become hostile. 

Olive didn't bother attempting to get the grist, focused instead on finding Rhodi. She said she'd be in a town, so Olive made a beeline for the nearest settlement. 

Outside of said town though, her drones began firing on large stone idols. Olive didn't even notice at first, until realizing that they dropped no grist. Olive shut the drones down before they could destroy all of them. 

“Didn't think you hated my craftsmanship that bad.” 

Looking up, Olive saw Rhodi standing at the top of the wall around the town. 

“Sorry, wasn't expecting to see any non-gem non-hostiles.” Olive apologized. 

Rhodi rolled her eyes, “Careful, these planets have locals and they're generally fine so long as you don't hurt them. As for these,” Rhodi patted the bulky stone idols, “These are to defend the town. The locals aren't so great when it comes to fighting. Same them after I made the wall.” 

“I see..” Olive said, maintaining a straight face despite her absolute awe at how fast and effectively the fusion gem could work on things. 

She opted not to mention this verbally, instead saying, “I hope your altruistic impulses didn't result in you slacking off on your other task.” 

Rhodochrosite scoffed, “Are you kidding? I've been done with my bit for awhile now.” She said, taking out what she'd been working on. 

The mechanical effigy of Ceylon was indeed entirely done. Physically anyway, the internals up to Olive. As she inspected it, she felt the ground starting to rumble. 

“I suspect my self defense attempts may have drawn the aggro of the local monsters.” Olive said apologetically. 

Rhodi chuckled, “You head inside and get our mecha-Ceylon finished up, I'll handle things out here.” Olive nodded, setting her drones to sentry mode to lend a little support as she headed inside to put the finishing touches on the machine.

Ceylon woke, looking around at the Land of Loneliness and Flood. 

She shook her head of the things she remembered from the dreams, and flew off towards town. She was only slightly surprised at the veritable mountain of grist around the town Rhodochrosite was defending. 

She hardly seemed winded, though she was quite drenched do to the moist nature of her land, her muscled body glistening as a result. Ceylon felt a thought brewing and just as quickly froze it, forcing it down to focus on what mattered. 

She floated down to Rhodi, who attempted to hug her before being stopped, “Nothing against fusion, but I suspect us being permanently merged together would lead to quite a few problems.” She said. 

“Oh.. right. My bad.” Rhodi said, having briefly forgotten the sprite thing. 

The fusion instead showed her to where Olive had already finished Ceylon's body inside the walls of the town. It was identical to her, save for being made of solid cold metal, and built to be able to manifest and project outward the powers of a sapphire. 

“Thank you,” Ceylon said, floating into the mechanical body. Rather than be fused into it, the sprite seemed to act instead as a spirit, flowing into and possessing the machine, becoming one with it and officially becoming physical rather than a sprite, “You make an excellent pair.” She said with a smile before using the levitation the machine still granted to take off and return to her own land. 

“Since when is she one of so few words?” Rhodi wondered aloud, while Olive's musings on her comment of them as a pair were wondered strictly in the mind.

Pink Lace had woken with a yawn. She couldn't remember much of her dream, but she felt like it had been an intense one. 

After assuring her rubies that she was fine, they set to chatting with the local mole-folk. They were rather skittish things, not seeming to trust Pink Agate or her group of Rubies very much. 

It took some coaxing, but she managed to learn that the mine she'd almost been tricked into entering was called The Mine of Mutualism, a vast cavern now populated with some of the strongest and most vicious monsters of LoGaD. 

She eventually managed to learn about somewhere new though, The Old Candle Hall. 

“Ain't much there now a days,” one of the consorts said, “But its where all the knowledge was kept back in the old days.” 

Pink Agate nodded, “Looks like that's our first lead.”

Ceylon's Carnelians had been waiting where they'd been posted, not moving once save for to defend the gate as their sapphire had requested. They were good soldiers, loyal. 

So of course, when they saw a Hessonite approaching, they stood at attention. 

“Good, so its working,” the garnet gem said to herself as she looked up from her locator to the gems, “Fall in line soldiers, you've got a new assignment.” They were surprised, they'd not been expecting to see a Hessonite, let alone one who looked so... off. 

Her hair was disheveled, and there was a shiny film developing around her mouth. But she was a Hessonite, and orders were orders. So they did as requested and fell in line behind her, waiting for further orders. 

Hessonite adjusted the locator and smiled at seeing another five gems they could regroup with. 

“Follow.” She ordered, heading away from the gate in search of the one that would take her to the rubies she was detecting. 

The quartz soldiers were worried to leave their sapphire behind, but they followed. Orders were orders after all.


	15. Passion

Caroline woke from a dream. She couldn't recall what it was about, but she still felt good about it, a warm fuzzy feeling in her form. 

She sat up feeling good... then looked around and remembered where she was. The doves and demons continued to argue, some physically fighting. 

It seems the two had descended back into argument while Caroline was asleep, and the quartz gem still wasn't sure which was which. 

The good vibes from her dream souring at the sight of this finished off the last of Caroline's nerves, and she made a decision. If you can't beat em, cheat. 

Caroline: Issue. Help. Now.  
Caroline: Please.  
Ceylon: The demons I take it?  
Caroline: How did you know?  
Caroline: Never mind, stupid question, yes.  
Ceylon: No desire to figure it out yourself? Caroline: I want to get on with this and start fighting. Please, please tell me you can tell which one is which, I'm pulling my hair out over here.  
Ceylon: Normally I'd try to encourage you to develop new skills and grow as a gem. But given the apocalyptic consequences of you potentially taking too long, I'll help you out. It's the feathery folk. When you attack, the spell they're using to disguise themselves will fade. The real doves will get their wings back the more progress you make against the demons.  
Caroline: THANK YOU!  
Ceylon: Happy hunting. 

Caroline signed out, stood up, dusted herself off.. and charged hell for leather into the nearest feathered creature, slamming into it like her body was a missile. 

She more or less blasted through it, what was left of its body collapsing into a broken pile of distinctly not feathery gore and grist. 

Caroline drew her battle axe, “This,” She said, holding her weapon aloft in the direction of the demons, “This is going to be fun.”  
(

* * *

)  
Caroline had been carving a canyon of gore through the demons for about an hour when her communicator went off. 

She had figured out how to use it hands free, so she was able to answer without stopping her absolute butchering of the demons. 

Lazurite: Hey, how goes it?  
Caroline: Murdering demons.  
Lazurite: Whats a demon?  
Caroline: No idea, but they lied to me, are currently trying to kill me, and are far better at dying than I am.  
Lazurite: Lol, not much of a challenge for a warrior gem huh?  
Caroline: Not really, not on their own anyway. They've got a few heavies, but mostly their biggest asset is numbers. There's metric fuck loads of them. For every one I kill twelve seem to appear, but I'm making progress. At this right, I should be able to find and level the big boss in no time.  
Lazurite: You're handling your land so much better than me.  
Caroline: You kidding? I had to ask Ceylon for help. I don't have the skills or determination you do to get a job done by myself. I'm just really, really good at killing things XD  
Lazurite: Skills? Determination?  
Caroline: You were on that planet alone for, like, ever. Just you and Desert Glass, and you were doing it. You didn't have much to work with, but you kept going, you found clever ways to use what you had and never gave up. You could have just said 'screw this' and flown off. But you were better than that, and you still are.  
Caroline: Oh hell, big guy inbound. Talk again later, gotta deal with this. 

Caroline sighed out, taking a deep breath as she charged the sulfur wyvern and the eight or so demons riding it, firing arrows down at her.  
(

* * *

)  
Lazurite sat for a moment, thinking over what Caroline had told her. She hadn't ever thought of herself as vary impressive, as a lapis or as a gem onto herself. 

And yet.. Caroline was using thoughts of *her* to fight on? Challenging an entire army of enemies? And here she'd been cowering from just two or three hiding in the smoke... 

'Perhaps its time I stop hiding.' She thought to herself. 

The timing was none too early, as moments after she let out her wings and took off, she heard a scream from nearby. 

She flew down towards it, finding that one of the Smoke Demon creatures had wandered out of its misty camouflage in the air to attack some unsuspecting bat consorts. 

She grinned, 'Big mistake.' 

She flew down at the monster, forming her wings into fists-a technique she'd used to carry supplies back on the planet she'd been trying to terraform-and slammed them down onto the Smoke Demon, crushing it beneath the fists. 

It let out a gasp and vanished into grist. 

The bat consorts were shocked, but before they could try to thank her, two more smoke demons rushed from the fog above, accompanied by three very odd looking enemies. 

Melody Riders going by the health bars. Horsemen. They looked like someone tried to make the shape of people and horses out of thousands of music notes, and given them cavalry weapons. 

Lazurite gulped, but took a breath, and raised her wings again. She could do this.  
(

* * *

)  
Imperial Jade was on her guard as she entered the Empty Forest. 

She'd gathered more information from the locals, and learned, through the same round about code speak, that the thing producing the new monsters-the ones that even the normal ones like imps an ogres didn't like-lived in the center of this place. 

She doubted she was ready to actually fight it of course, but she figured gathering intel couldn't hurt. She could see why they called it the Empty Forest. It was silent save for her footsteps, and completely dead save for the trees. 

No other signs of life, plant or animal. Even the underlings stopped appearing at some point. Both aspects of the fusion gem came from lives of quite a bit of hustle and bustle, so to be in this place of such emptiness and silence was none too kind on her nerves. 

The deeper into the forest she got, the more an unseen dread bubbled up in the pit of her form. She found herself imagine the Diamonds in the center of the forest, finding her within it and shattering her on the spot with no words or emotion. 

So lost was she in those thoughts, that she didn't notice the creature approaching her until it's horns slammed into her chest. The monster was more solid than the Grimy Spawn, but no more easy on the eyes. 

It was built like a quadruped, but with far, far, far too many legs; at least twelve of the brown furred, hooved appendages that Jade could see. 

Some didn't even tough the ground, others were bent at odd angles or split into two legs. All of them coming from a thick mass that seemed to be pure, solid horn or antler material, stretching up into a tree branch like cluster of stretching horns. 

No visible eyes, but at least four mouths, a main one at the front of it and three others that Jade could see having grown on different parts of the horn body, all salivating and growling. 

Imperial Jade righted herself in time to avoid the second charge attack, bringing her foot up to kick the underbelly. 

She winced, realizing that unarmed attacks weren't going to do much to it. Its legs were vulnerable yes, but its body really was solid all the way through, or the horn shell was thick enough that the attacks weren't gonna get through. 

She looked around for a rock or something she could use, only to get pounced on again. 

The horns seemed to be able to stretch out like vines or tentacles, all creaking like old wood as they did so, trying to stab or snare the fusion gem. 

Acting more on some kind of instinct than anything else, Imperial Jade closed the two hands on her right side as though around the handle of a weapon, and swung up at the monster above her. 

To her genuine shock, there was a solid impact that knocked the monster off of her. Looking to her hands, she found what looked like a war hammer. 

It was pitch black and otherwise featureless, like looking at a three dimensional shadow. It faded and vanished almost immediately, leaving her once again unarmed. 

Deciding to investigate that later, she turned her attention to the monster. 

It was alive still, but with a massive crack in its horn shell body. A weak point. She could work with this.  
(

* * *

)  
Lazurite panted as the last of the Melody Riders dissolved into grist. 

The consorts thankfully had water pouches on them, so in addition to her wings, she'd had a small amount of other water to use, which had made all the difference in fighting them. 

She was a bit bruised up, but damage like that was nothing to a gem so long as their actual stone was unarmed. 

“Are you two okay?” She asked the consorts. 

“Yes, we're fine thanks to you.” The first said, both smiling at her, “How can we help you?” The second asked. 

It hadn't occurred to Lazurite until that moment to actually ask the locals about the place. She'd been too afraid of those monsters hiding in the fog, hoping one of her friends, perhaps Ceylon since she knew so much, to help her. She mentally kicked herself now, but shrugged it off. 

“Is there anything important that needs tending to?” She asked, “Maybe an important location that's been overrun?” 

The two consorts thought it over for a moment before the first said, “No one's been able to get to the Tuning Fork in awhile. Without it, there's not been any way to get the music the planet makes back on tune. It's been so discordant and broken lately.” 

“They're calling the thing blocking the Tuning Fork off 'The Sound Storm'.”

Lazurite nodded, thanking them. It wasn't a massive amount, but it was a goal she could focus on.  
(

* * *

)  
River woke with a yawn. She couldn't recall what she had been dreaming about, but whatever it was, it had left her in good spirits. 

She looked around at the others. She'd been brought to the servants quarters after being knocked out she realized. 

The consorts around her were all dressed appropriately as servants such as herself. All were staring at her for some reason. The pearl assumed initially it was because she looked so different to them, but realized that couldn't be the case. 

They'd seen her already when the soldiers had marched them all in here. Looking closer, several of the consorts were red faced or unable to make eye contact with her. 

River could only interpret this as a mix of anger and disgust, all contained quite well by polite servants. 

She realized what had happened, and touched her gem. It must have been projecting her dream outward. 

Whatever she'd been dreaming, the other servants had all been able to see it and watch. River didn't even know what it had been, but to inspire such a reaction from those around her, it must have been reprehensible... 

River was surprised when one of the consort servants approached her to talk. “The name's Meghan.” She introduced herself. 

She was dressed as a maid, her ursine figure filling it out remarkably well the pearl thought, “Welcome to the servant's cell.” 

“It's a pleasure to be here. I... cell?” She questioned. 

Meghan nodded, “Don't worry, so long as you follow the rules you'll be fine.” 

“Pearls like myself are excellent at following rules.” River assured her. 

Meghan raised an eyebrow, her expression making it look like she was waiting for a punchline. When none came, her expression grew more curious. 

“Riiight... anyway, servants don't own positions. Any and all forms of treasure get thrown out into the Biting Yard.” 

“The.. what?” River questioned. 

Meghan pointed to a window in the corner of the cell. Looking out of it, the purple pearl looked over a massive courtyard. It was littered with treasures of all kinds; but equally riddled with gore. The cause was easy to spot. 

Bear traps. Hundreds of them. Much grizzlier than normal ones, more so even than the animate ones that had tried to attack River before. 

And just like that, the sense of calm River had developed at being in a familiar place melted away.


	16. Deals

Green Spinel: Maxi, you on?  
Maxixe: It's Maxixe, and obviously. My only job appears to be 'frog wrangler' and what with that being nearly impossible, I've not got a lot better to do.  
Green Spinel: Right right right, well anyway, I need your help with something.  
Maxixe: And why exactly do you expect me to be helping you? We were given individual lands, one can only presume based on status.  
Green Spinel: Well if you're gonna get back on the status card, the reason I need help is to save the Nephrites from my crew.  
Maxixe:...go on.  
Green Spinel: We crash landed when we appeared on the planet, sudden gravity when you've been in space isn't great for a space ship. They all had their forms poofed and scattered around. One of the creatures here carried them to a big pit full of shinies. Something goes wrong every time I try to get them myself. You can use that scope of yours to lift them out from a distance. And as an upper crust, you'd be ever so much better than me riiiight?  
Maxixe: Be that as it may, to simply drop everything and help you won't do. I'll require compensation of some kind. You're powers may be of use on my planet. Get directions from the sapphire.  
Green Spinel: Deal.  
(

* * *

)  
Corundum stumbled through the jungle, hands clutching her head as she attempted not to trip over anything. 

“Gah.. why does it hurt so much?” Ever since she'd woken up, her head had been pounding even more than ever before. 

She might not have loved how foggy she remembered her mind being back in the white room with all the bubbled shard monsters, but she'd take the fogginess in an instant over this splitting pain. She'd even accept the monster attacks and the consort insults over it. 

But it just wouldn't go away. She considered just curling up in a hole somewhere, or perhaps letting one of the monsters that her sprite didn't take care of for her poof so she could just be in her gem. 

She'd only ever been in her gem once before, right before she'd first formed, and from what little she could recall, it felt calm if nothing else. There was only one thing really preventing her doing so. 

Green Spinel: How goes WC?  
White Corundum: Been better honestly.  
Green Spinel: Oh no, everything alright?  
White Corundum: Just.. something is making me hurt, and the monsters aren't helping at all.  
Green Spinel: Tell me about it. These things are the worst. Not as many here on Maxixe's land thankfully. What do you think is hurting you? Could it be one of the monsters messing with you?  
White Corundum: Maybe.. best guess I've heard. But it doesn't seem right.. I feel like something's been off since we started this game.  
Green Spinel: I could have told you that XD White Corundum: I guess so ^^U just.. weird.  
Green Spinel: Well, on the bright side, we can at least meet up with each other at some point!  
White Corundum: ^^ can't wait. Just gotta make it long enough, heh.  
Green Spinel: I'm sure you can handle it. You're tougher than you think, I know it. We all are. Gotta get to work catching frogs now, good luck! 

Corundum smiled as she read Green Spinel's message, feeling a bit better, if only briefly. It was cut off rather abruptly by Corundum bumping into something. 

Looking up, the thing she'd bumped into appeared to be a collection of the surrounding plant life all interlocked together into a golem of about fifteen feet in height, carrying an entire tree as a club. 

Corundum dropped to her knees, not in pain or as any result of the monster. Said monster was quite confused as the gem started sobbing in pain and clutching at her head before it had even done anything. The pain was back and far more intense now. 

She let out something between a sob and a roar. There was a feeling inside of something flowing, like a clogged faucet briefly unblocked. The pain faded thankfully, and looking up, the monster was gone to; a charred mass of burned plants, some still smoldering, in its place. 

Corundum gulped, simply carrying about her business, trying not to let herself think about what had just happened.  
(

* * *

)  
White Zircon peered out over the vast, dark, abyss below her. 

“Certainly dark and deep, though I'm unsure of its importance.” She mused. 

Her studies of the consort legal code and history had been extensive yes, more so than she was usually build for perhaps, but it had finally yielded some information she could make physical use of. The Pitch Pit it was reportedly called. 

A seemingly bottomless hole punched into the planet by unknown sources. However deep it went, rot and decay of some kind seemed to be seeping out of it and into the world around it.

Organic life simply ceased at a certain point close to it, planets and animals slightly beyond it steadily decaying as well. 

Zircon had seen such effects before. Gem bio-poison had very similar effects on a planet, but Zircon could detect no physical cause behind the rot. She suspected that this pit was less responsible for it and more the way that the actual cause was letting in their influence. 

What such influence was and how it worked was something White Zircon was content to not understand for the time being, as that was not the most directly relevant part to her mission. 

According to her records, this pit had been the cause of a good forty-five percent of the legal disputes that took place over the years, contributing heavily to how mangled the records were becoming. 

As people were forced to move around as the result of its effects, they got in each other's way, argued more, fought more and in most cases seemed to default to the legal method. 

In most cases, Zircon would have been tempted to approve of such a culture, but having seen the results of it.. she was less keen now. 

If she was to thin the herd of files, and prevent herself being inundated with hundreds more yet, she was to close down this pit. 

“Geode, can you brighten up a bit?” She asked. She'd learned that, while her sprite could often be restricted by the rules of the game, there was plenty she could do if things were worded properly. 

Geodesprite nodded, fluttering out over the center of the pit and brightened, spreading bright white light across the pit to illuminate it. White Zircon saw something she'd not wanted to see, but was unsurprised to. 

Monsters. More than she could count in fact. Not like the normal ones though, these were paper thin, shadows that seemed to stand upright. She'd spotted them before of course, but never in such a high quantity. 

Dispatch these, and the pit would hopefully close by itself. Illogical, but having studied what information about the game she could manage to find or be told by her sprite, she was quite certain this would work. She brought up her battle screens. 

This was going to take some time.


	17. Lost

Ceylon came to a stop at the edge of a large crystalline volcano. 

If her analysis and future vision was correct, then she was quite certain this was the location of the entity known as 'The Denizen,' or at least her land's personal Denizen, known as Hephaestus. 

The mechanical Gem landed at the edge of it, and called out into it. The bubbling liquid stone became disturbed as something within it, something large, began to ride from below. 

Ceylon watched as Hephaestus came into view, the massive coal black body of the serpent visible through the intense flame surrounding its surface. 

Were she still a normal sapphire, she'd likely be feeling some form of innate distress at being this close to something burning so hot. But the melting point of her current body couldn't be reached outside of stars, so she felt nothing but interest as she gazed up at the massive beast. 

When it spoke, it did so in a language she'd never heard before, that perhaps no one had ever heard before; and yes she understood it just the same, aware that she should be confused or curious about this but unable to maintain such feelings. 

“Have you come to challenge me in battle?” The great forge master questioned. 

“No, I'm quite certain if I did you'd reduce me to scrap.” Ceylon said bluntly, “I'm here for The Choice. I can find references to it in the code, as has a friend of mine, Zircon, but neither of us seem able to pin down what it is. Not even my future vision seems able to foresee what it is. I rather suspect that it is the key to completing this game.” 

“Indeed it is,” Hephaestus said, “But you are as ore in the ground, utterly useless to me as you are. If I were to give you The Choice now, you would answer incorrectly, and doom the lot of us. There is no logic to it.” 

“And what precisely does that mean?” Ceylon questioned, none too pleased to be useless, though too calm to become overly enraged by it. 

“You would not understand if you were to hear it. You have trials and tribulations to experience, to refine you into something worth putting effort into.”*

“I'll have you know I am quite intelligent.” Ceylon said indignantly. 

“You gaze into time and yet are blind to the truth of the present. Even as you sit here and speak to me of your knowledge you are oblivious to those who have vanished in the absence of your guidance. It metal is too fragile, is of too frail a constitution, then it will simply break between my hammer and anvil, becoming yet more worthless than it was beforehand. Go, now, and collect for me metals I may use for creation. I will tell you more if you can achieve this.” 

Ceylon didn't feel confident she'd been told much of anything, but if nothing else she at least had a concrete goal to work from. With an internal sigh, she set off to find some metal that might satisfy the massive serpent blacksmith.  
(

* * *

)  
Pink Lace Agate and her Rubies headed towards the Old Candle Hall. 

She wasn't sure what they would find there, but it was their only real lead for the moment. It was a large building, build from old stone. 

“Stand guard,” Agate told the Rubies, who nodded and formed a line outside the door as Pink Lace entered. 

Inside, Pink Lace walked down a long, candle lit pathway. None of the candles seemed to drip any wax despite how long they must have been burning. 

Finally, she reached an actual room. There was artwork, great murals drawn across the massive room, the candle light flickering over them. The quartz gem looked over them all curiously, trying to interpret what she was seeing. 

“Need some help deary?” 

Pink Lace spun on her heels, hand already over her gem to draw her weapon when she heard the sudden voice; only to find that it was just a consort. An older one by the looks of it, dressed in a colorful, gemstone studded robe. 

Had Pink lace not since picked up on the fact that these gems weren't Gems as she understood them, the clothing would have made her sick to look at; even now it gave a slightly eerie look to here, though she knew she didn't have anything to worry about. 

“Yes actually.. I'm trying to understand what these pictures are.” Pink Lace said. 

The consort nodded, “They depict the history of LoGaD,” She said, holding a hand out to one imagine, showing a rolling field of glittering stones and shining hills, “At the start, we all lived happily and content. There was boundless wealth in the land, so none needed want for anything. We simply went about our lives, living for life's sake and not for the sake of desire.” 

Her hand moved to another image, depicting a vast, vast serpentine entity, seemingly slithering from the stars towards the planet, “But Sophia changed all that. Sophia, the Denizen, came to the Land of Glow and Diamond, and carried with her more treasure than any alive have every seen. Carried it all to her lair underground to horde.”

The consort's hand moved to another image, depicting consorts worrying, then arguing, then fighting. 

“Suddenly, there was a limit to what one could be and have. That fear brought greed, and that greed only grew the more each consort took for themselves. That greed poisoned their hearts, made them shadows of what they once were.” 

Pink Lace listened politely, and mused over what she had seen. She wasn't sure what this Sophia thing was, but how one being could have so much greed... even the Diamonds at least believed they were doing the right thing as they marched across the galaxy. 

“Wait.. whats that one?” She pointed to the final image, almost unnoticed, drawn on the ceiling itself. 

“Ah.. thats an event yet to come. The Hero of Heart who is said to come to LoGaD and restore us to what we once were. Some believe it a myth, some a prophecy, some a warning. None know the truth for sure. Me.. I'm hopeful.” 

“I see..” The Agate considered this, biting the inside of her mouth as she did so. 

“Thank you deary,” the consort said, “It's been a long while since anyone came to visit without trying to steal from me, longer still since anyone has come to actually learn. Here.. take this. It may serve you well out there.” The old woman handed Pink Lace a candlestick. It seemed to glow, and sent a tingle through Agate's hand as she held it. 

“It's quite magical, and quite strong. Use it well deary.” The old woman said. 

Pink Lace started to say that she couldn't accept a gift for having simply stood there and listened, but the consort waved her off, 

“Safe travels deary.” She said, walking off into the many halls of the building. 

Pink Lace sighed, storing it in her gem for now and heading outside. 

She intended to tell the Rubies what she had learned, but when she left the building... they weren't there.  
(

* * *

)  
Imperial Jade took a deep breath, and focused. Focused on the darkness around her, focused on the nothingness within. 

In her mind's eye, she focused on bringing form back to that nothing. She reached out into the dark, focusing as hard as she could. 

*Shadow Tools*. 

Despite having been explicitly attempting to do this, Imperial Jade was still shocked when her fingers closed around something solid. A bar of solid blackness, solid nothing. It vanished immediately as she lost focused of course, but it was progress. 

After the event with the monster, she'd set to practicing whatever these strange abilities could be. So far, she could reliable make things vanish into shadows and pull them back out, even from different shadows, but that was the best she could manage. 

She had noticed that the consorts seemed more keen on providing her with information lately, but she wasn't fully convinced this was a power and not just her more and more learning the ways of this place. 

Regardless, she was definitely getting stronger. She chuckled at that thought. 

A jade fusion.. powerful. The thought alone would likely give a Diamond palpitations. She wondered if the entity lurking on this land would be similarly surprised when she found it. 

The two seemed so similar in her mind.  
(

* * *

)  
Hessonite returned through the Gate to the temporary base camp she'd established with the Carnelians. 

All stood at attention as she approached, “Found more soldiers.” She told them, indicating the Rubies who were following her through. “They'll serve us well.” 

The Rubies were slightly uncomfortable to leave Pink Lace behind, but direct orders from a Hessonite couldn't just be ignored. 

“There's still more to find though,” Hessonite said, looking at the locator, “Come along now, there's much to be done. And here,” She handed the Rubies as well as the Carnelians jars of the honey she'd gotten from the merchants, “It calms the mind, helps you focus.” She said. 

The Rubies weren't so certain about that. Hessonite's speech was slurring slightly as she said it, her breathing was odd, and she had some of said honey crusted around her mouth, like she'd either not noticed or couldn't care to clean it. 

But.. orders were orders, so..bottoms up.


	18. Found

Green Spinel woke up with a yawn, her arms stretching out a good eight feet passed her head. She looked around and giggled to herself. 

Silly Spinel, she'd fallen asleep mid-performance! The kind audience members had brought her into the shade thankfully, so nice. She got up, preparing to put on another show. But then something occurred to her. 

She wanted to visit her friends! She didn't recall ever actually doing so before, which seemed far too rude, even for a Green Spinel. But which of her friends to visit she wondered... ah! If she was to visit any of her friends, it just had to be White Corundum. 

Of all of them, Spinel was quite certain she needed a hug the most. She coiled her legs together like a spring, winding up a few times before taking off like a rocket. 

She could fly already of course, though she wasn't sure why, but a nice launch would give her more speed, and she had a lot of places to check for her friend.  
(

* * *

)  
Pink Lace held Maxixe close, allowing the aqua marine to vent to her. 

They'd been at this for quite some time, Maxixe seeming to find it therapeutic to just let out all her feelings. 

When she'd agreed to listen to her, even after seeing the crying fit, the agate had been expecting quite a bit of venom to be directed towards the others gems, particularly Lazurite who she'd always been especially rude to. 

What she got was rather more of the opposite. The blue gem went on at length about knowing deep down about how much the other Gems looked down on her, even the lower class Gems like River. More surprising still was her genuinely considering whether or not they were in the right to do so. 

“Why in the world would they do that?” Pink Lace questioned. 

“You know why..” Maxixe pouted, “I'm weak. I'm supposed to be an Aqua Marine, but they only give me a low tech focus lens instead of the high tech wands because they know it would be a waste. I can't fly as fast as the other aqua marines, can't plan like them, can even intimidate like them. You all know, the Diamonds knew it, even Topaz knows it. And no one saying anything just makes it louder in my head. I don't know how to make myself stronger.. I just-” 

Maxixe found herself suddenly cut off by the pink Gem pulling her against her body, unable to speak as her face was pressed into the Agate's bountiful chest. 

“Sh, sh, sh. None of that now,” Agate said comfortingly, rubbing the smaller Gem's back, “You don't have to live up to those standards, you never have frankly but especially not anymore. I know I can't speak for the others, but I've never looked down on you. Been annoyed with you maybe but never thought anything like that, and I wouldn't be shocked if it was the same for the others. 

“I think you need to find a way to talk more openly with them. If you can actually communicate with them, maybe you can really start to grow. Maybe, just maybe, that's how you become strong.” 

Maxixe was quiet as she considered this, unsure how to feel. It seemed so simply, but it had never even once occurred to her. And yet... it made perfect sense.  
(

* * *

)  
White Zircon woke at the desk. 

Where was she... ah yes, Prospitan archives. 

This golden city may be garish but it had wonderful records. She continued to pour over the notes. She'd learned so much so quickly from them, and had the entire history of the war between Prospit and Derse down. 

She couldn't seem to pin point a cause for the war, but the more she read, the more certain she was that there not being a cause may be the point in some metaphysical way. 

As she read, she learned of the king and queen, and now they, employing scepters and rings respectively, merged with the powers bestowed on the sprites. This knowledge made it utterly clear that one or both of the Dersite royals would likely be the final enemy for them to deal with. 

She wondered how she was to bring this information to her waking else, let alone to all the others. 

No solution presented itself, and trying to make one herself proved equally fruitless as the Zircon's mind continued to wonder. 

She found herself dwelling on the concept of the ring and scepter, artifacts allowing them to gain the traits of those the players had brought into the game. It was not fusion in the sense that Gems understood it, but it was a fusion of some kind she supposed. 

She started to form a thought along the lines of 'no wonder they're the final enemies,' but it was cut off by her recalling that the Prospitan king and queen, by all accounts their allies, also incorporated fusion. As she mused on this, her thoughts began to drift to her primary allies. 

While her waking self was unwilling to consider it, it was aching clear that Jade was neither a Forest or Yellow-Green, she was a fusion. She didn't know what she looked like or what she could do, but her thoughts seemed to fixate on it, imaging what the combination of Gems would create. 

A new life form, maintained by a mutual connection that bolstered both the physical and mental strength.. the idea of it was rather alluring the more she thought about it.. 

No, no no no. White Zircon shook her head, attempting to snap herself out of this absurd line of thinking. 

If this team contained a fusion she would work with them on sufferance, as all of them were needed to sort this game out. She took the thoughts and pushed them as far back in her mind as possible so she might forget them. 

Or at least.. she attempted to.  
(

* * *

)  
Green Spinel had searched high and low for White Corundum. 

She'd eventually realized that she was nowhere to be found on Prospit, and so, after consulting the clouds-which seemed to display images if one looked long enough-jetted off to Derse. 

It was much easier to find her there, though she did have to dodge spears that the Dersites were trying to throw at her. It was easy for her to slip through the bars. 

They may have prevented shapeshifting, but they shouldn't stop her stretching herself thin and snaking into White Corundum's rather charred room. 

She was surprised to see it in the state it was in, and even more so to see Corundum in the state she was in. She hopped over to her and attempted to wake her to ask if she was okay. 

No dice it seemed, as after several tries she was still out cold. Spinel pouted, but instead busied herself trying to clean the soot off of her. 

But try as Green Spinel might, the soot clung to White Corundum, making her look more like ash corundum; which she was decently sure wasn't a thing. 

Upset, but happy she had found her friend, she laid down on the burnt heap that had been Corundum's bed and settled for cuddling her to try and ease whatever dreams she was having, limbs stretching out to wrap around her protectively as they both rested. 

Corundum sighed in her sleep, distressed expression softening ever so slightly.  
(

* * *

)  
Olive's drones orbited her, blasting away enemies as she continued to work on extraneous code to upgrade it on her personal screen. 

As she wondered across the open wild land of LoFaH, she contemplated where exactly she was going. Certainly there was to be some large enemies she was to sort out, but she'd found no indication. 

She'd found towns of course and had her drones scout out them as well as the inside of the large Hives. 

It was fascinating, if slightly unnerving how the insectoid creatures continually worked and worked and worked until they collapsed, their only break seeming to be to indulge from a large vat of thick honey. 

It seemed to fill them with much more energy, but it also seemed to effect their minds in some way she couldn't quite determine without having a sample. And as if on cue, the peridot felt something viscous and sticky squish beneath her foot. 

Looking down, she found that she'd stepped on what could best be described as a vein of honey, a small flowing river of the stuff that seemed to be heading in the direction of the nearest town. 

Her immediate response was to gather a sample for analysis. But, seeing the way it was flowing made it clear that it was coming from somewhere. 

Setting her drones to only attack at her command, Olive proceeded, following the flow up towards its source. She first thing she found was where the honey itself came from. 

A churning pool where some of the bees, much smaller and with a wild, glazed over look in their eyes, seemed to brew the stuff continuously. But watching the process, they seemed to be making normal honey. 

Olive knew little of organic things but could easily scan everything they were doing and detected nothing anomalous about it. Thats when she saw that the stream didn't stop at this churning honey pot. 

Continuing on, the river was not honey but a clear, water like liquid. Intrigued, the peridot proceeded on, as it was clear that whatever this substance was, this is what was tainting the honey. It was a long walk, at the end of which she found what she could best describe as an abandoned sanctuary. 

It was a small place, enclosed by a long untended brick wall and rusted fence. 

Inside, the plant life had overgrown remarkably, and in the center of it all Olive found a well. A very, very damaged well. Within, the water seemed to almost shimmer, crystal clear and radiating.. something. 

Olive couldn't fully comprehend what she was looking at as she gazed down into the water. But the wall was cracked in a dozen or more places, each having a steady stream of the liquid flowing out. 

Olive could only presume each stream flowed into a honey vein and mixed with it, changing it. The water itself was harmless, perhaps beneficial. 

Olive wasn't quite sure how she knew this to be true, but she was certain. But when mixed with the honey and other impurities, whatever effect it had changed. Olive rolled up her sleeves and set to repairing the well. 

It took longer than she was happy with, as she was better with metallic materials, but soon all the leaks had been stopped. She still had no clues where to go next, but was quite sure she'd just made a big step in the challenge of her land. 

Before she moved on, she took out a vial and filled it with the pure water from the well, just in case.


	19. Gritting Teeth

River woke somewhat groggily. Memories slowly flooded back to her. She wasn't entirely sure what she'd drank the previous night, but she could remember the fun she'd had before and after. 

Sitting up, she found that not only was she not in her own bed, but she was not alone in that bed. The Dersite girl who'd been trying to assassinate her as well as two other derse ladies were laying in bed with her. 

There wasn't a scrap of clothing to be found anywhere in the room, so they'd likely been naked already before they even got to wherever this was. 

She couldn't remember all of the previous night it seemed, but this simply made her giggle. She looked over the three beauties in her bed, admiring their bodies. 

Her gazing was interrupted by several loud bangs on the door that woke the three derse women. River frowned, and turned to the door with a scowl. 

Said door burst open, several dersite soldiers starting to enter with pikes at the ready. River was already by with her bo staff out by the time they did. 

They had been ready for a fight, but they had not been prepared to see their prisoner charging them stark naked, and that hesitation cost them. She brought her staff down onto the head of the first guard with enough force that his knees buckled and he collapsed onto the one before him. 

She dropped low to avoid the pike thrusts of those who'd regained their senses, striking at their legs with her staff to drop them as well. 

River struggled not to burst into laughter at her so called captures so easily felled into a struggling heap. 

One managed to get back to his feet, only to take a strike to the side of the head. The next did the same, but managed to try for a strike. 

River struck at the pike, knocking it from its hands before pivoting and striking him on the other side of the head to the other. 

The last finally managed to free himself from the unconscious soldier beneath him, only to see the naked prisoner standing over his three now unconscious fellow soldiers. Her bo was held at the ready, a 'make a move' expression on her face. 

The soldier assessed the situation and decided on tactical retreat, hurriedly getting out an apology for interrupting her pivot time and bailing. River was met with cheers from the girls at this. She smiled and set to pushing the unconscious soldiers out the door. 

By the time she was back from taking out the trash, the three derse woman were already fully awake and back to the fun, two making out heatedly against the bed while the third had taken out a bottle of that odd drink. 

Grinning, River sauntered over to the bed...  
(

* * *

)  
River woke with a start, her gem flickering as whatever hologram she'd been projecting cut out. 

She still wasn't sure what she kept displaying, but the consorts around her all looked terribly flustered. Even Meghan was red faced, though she at least was still willing to talk. 

Why the consorts continued to watch her holograms if they were so bad, River couldn't speculate, and was far too embarrassed to ask about. 

In any event, it was time to get the day started.  
(

* * *

)  
Caroline: How goes the training and study?  
Lazurite: Pretty good on both fronts actually, I've learned quite a lot.  
Caroline: Oh yeah?  
Lazurite: Yep! Apparently the planet makes a sort of natural music because of, like, a dozen different factors from air current to the movement of its tectonic plates. Music, near as I can tell, it a collection of noises that follow a rhythm or beat, making a tune that's both pleasing to hear despite not necessarily having informational substance, but can also evoke certain emotions in the listener, kind of like the singing that the pearls do.  
Caroline: I've actually heard of music before. They uh.. actually have it where I'm from.  
Lazurite: Oh.. right..  
Lazurite: Anyway, the bat consorts evolved in tune with the music. Their whole culture used to be built around it, pain and passion and everything in between, migrating to different parts of the planets to follow or find certain songs.  
Caroline: Used to be?  
Lazurite: Yeah.. some time ago, something called 'The Denizen' arrived. They burrowed deep into the crush and did something. The surface of the planet has always been innately hotter for some reason, and small fires would fill the skies with a thin veil of smoke that the consorts could fly through harmlessly.  
Lazurite: But whatever the denizen did caused the fires to spread and rage out of control. The smoke grew incredibly thick. Now it's not only generating monsters, but also warping the music, turning them into broken, unpleasant, sounds that at best hurt to listen to and at worst seem to actively drive the consorts mad.  
Lazurite: I can only assume setting things right is my mission on this land. I've already made progress to. I found a land mark, this massive mountain sized structure called 'The Tuning Fork.' It amplifies and regulates sound.  
Lazurite: It took several tries, but eventually I was able to strike it hard enough to activate it. I've created a sort of temporary safe zone, no monsters inside and no mad consorts. Hopefully I'll be strong enough to strike it again by the time it's vibrations stop.  
Caroline: Wow.. you're doing amazing. So far all I've done is butcher my way through monster.  
Lazurite: Somehow I feel like that's basically what you're meant to do on your land.  
Caroline: Heh, yeah probably. I'll let you get back to it. Keep doing great! 

Lazurite put down the communicator with a smile, feeling warm. She wasn't surprised Caroline knew what music was, she'd heard stories of something like it being seen on earth. 

“Shall we continue training?” Desert Glasssprite asked. 

She nodded, stretching out and letting out her wings. Desert Glass rose several pillars of sand and sent them at her, some as rigid pillars, others like attacking tendrils. 

There was almost no water on offer for Lazurite to work with, so they'd instead worked on training her wings.

Lapis lazulies usually weren't known for brute strength or much aggression in combat, but so far, Lazurite seemed to be doing pretty decent, her wings smashing and slicing through pillars, forming hands to catch and force the tendrils back. 

She seemed to, at a certain point during training, get 'into the zone.' 

That was the best way she could put it, and she wondered if it was how quartz Gems felt when they were fighting. It was exhilarating, rushing and striking and thinking of nothing but combat; and made even more satisfying when she actually succeeded. 

Desert Glass smiled as she watched her. 

She'd worried for Lazurite for years now, even as a normal desert glass she'd still been able to tell how stressed, depressed, and disillusioned she'd become over time. 

She hadn't thought it possible to become bitter towards the Diamonds before, but as she watched what had happened to her partner... maybe it was the new freedom being a sprite brought her, but she was glad they weren't in that world anymore. 

She couldn't wait to see how far her partner would go, what she'd become.  
(

* * *

)  
Maxixe and Green Spinel had been collecting frogs for ages. 

Maxixe's scope had been severely limited in usefulness on account of the massive crowds packed into the towns. 

Spinel, though, was an amazing help. Both because her elasticity allowed her to reach frogs far away in awkward areas far easier, and by being able to clear clouds or distracting them with her bombastic jester act to keep them from moving about. 

Maxixe could only assume they were nearly done. She'd only just begun to figure out the full mechanics of the ecto-biology lab, but was able to just about fathom its functions. She was disgusted by the visuals of it of course, but had to commend the advanced nature of the technology. 

Even Gems hadn't cracked technology that could effect things through time. 

“Nearly done.” Maxixe assured Green Spinel as they traveled via rooftops. Maxixe road on Spinel's back. 

She told herself she'd ordered Spinel to do so as a show of respect, but both were well aware that the aqua marine physically wouldn't be able to keep up otherwise, the gravity too high for her. While her physical body was unaffected thanks to the mechanics of a Gem, her innately weaker than average wings had become unstable. 

Maxixe tried not to let herself think about the fact that Spinel might well know about this weakness. Thankfully her inner thoughts on the matter were cut off by a heavy rumbling. 

Looking to investigate, both gems were surprised at what they saw. 

An absolute monster of a frog, looking to be twice the size of as Roaming Eye. It had claws at the end of its feet, and spikes jutting from various parts of its body, some of which were in its tongue. The most simultaneously upsetting and intriguing part of it was it's back. 

It seemed to be partially liquid.. or perhaps some kind of mesh. Dozens of other, more normal frogs, were trapped within it, still croaking and wriggling but unable to escape; some even seemed to be glowing. 

The feature made the name above it's distressingly large health bar make perfect sense: The Carrier Frog. 

“Woah.. we found the mother load!” Green Spinel explained, “We take that one down and we're done for sure.” 

Maxixe nodded, climbing down from Spinel, “I'll lend support from up here, you head down for direct damage. Try not to damage the other frogs.” 

“You got it boss.” Spinel said, spring jumping from the rooftop and landing in from of the massive frog. 

It's eyes focused on the green Gem before it, it's mouth opening wide and releasing a spray of a thick, sickly looking goo. 

Spinel yelped, launching herself out of the way. Rather than jump away from the Carrier Frog, she launched herself beneath it, letting the goo land where she'd been.

From her position beneath it, she was able to wind up her arms and punch rapid fire at its underbelly like a machine gun, chipping away at it's health. 

The frog let out a deafening croak before launching itself off the ground. The force sent it far above the rooftops. Spinel's mouth literally fell to the ground, and after fixing it, she tried to avoid being wherever the massive beast was going to land. 

But Maxixe could see it, her eyepiece tracking it's moving let her know that for as unintelligent as the creature looked, it's descent was following her. 

Unless she ran into the crowds or hid in a building, it would land on her, and Maxixe knew the Green Spinel wouldn't do that, as it risked the consorts. 

Why she felt they mattered, Maxixe couldn't say. She also realized that if it did land on Spinel, it would be so focused on her that she could simply use her zero point eye lens to pull all the frogs free of its back and flee. And yet... 

“Spinel watch out!” She extended the area of her lens and stopped the entire frog. It had been so close to landing Spinel could feel a rush of wind hit her when it was stopped. 

“Nice catch!” She called with a sigh, returning to her bullet punch technique to steadily chip away at the monster's health bar. 

Unseen by either of them, the Carrier Frog's eyes moved from Spinel up to the blue trail of light, connecting the energy pinning it in place to Maxixe. 

It let out another thunderous croak before opening it's mouth. Neither were worried as it's slime couldn't reach Spinel. 

But slime isn't what came out. Its long, spiked tongue shot out of it's mouth as though fired from a rocket, curving around in the air and smashing into the root, taking out of it off in a massive crash of debris. 

Spinel heard it, and though she couldn't see it, when the Carrier Frog fell onto her without warning, she new Maxixe had been hurt. 

Thankfully it had landed on her from a mere few feet. She was in no pain, just trapped beneath it. 

Well, trapped may have been too strong a word considering it took all of a second for her to inflate herself, launching it off of herself. Her arms stretched up to catch its body and slam it down hard on its weakened belly. 

It burst into enough grist and frogs to fill the entire area. Spinel moved fast, arms rapidly collecting all the look, to be given to Maxixe later of course, as this was her land after all. 

This done, she stretched her arms up to the wrecked roof and reeled herself in. 

“Heya! That went great!” She said, “Hope you didn't take too much of a tumble.” 

When she got no response, she grew nervous. Had that attack been enough to poof Maxixe? She quickly set to clearing debris, and when she found Maxixe among it, she gasped. 

She wasn't poofed.. she was unconscious.. with her gem cracked...  
(

* * *

)  
Ceylon returned to the Hephaestus, landing at the edge of his volcano. 

The massive molten serpent was steadily hammering away at a slab of metal with a hammer clutched in the curled up end of its tail. What he was forging, she couldn't begin to speculate on. 

“I've collected metal for you.” She called up to it, taking it from her game inventory. 

She'd gathered what she believed to be a respectable amount of every possible metal she knew to exist. It had taken her quite a bit of time, effort, and meditation on her future vision to collect it all. 

Both her future vision and ice abilities seemed to be somewhat dampened lately, either by being a sprite or by being inside a machine, which made both finding and effectively gathering the materials quite difficult. In some cases she'd even needed to find and pass through Gates to other lands when a type of metal didn't exist on her own. 

Hephaestus turned, briefly looking over the large pile of metals. With its tail, it reached out and pulled it all into the bubbling lava. 

*Wrong Metal.* He said simply. 

“WHAT?!” She questioned in a combination of shock and frustration. 

*Must fight to collect the proper metal. Only the Paradox Walker carries the metal you seek.* 

“And you didn't think to tell me that?!” 

*Why did you not think to ask?* Hephaestus questioned, *This is why you are unready for The Choice.* 

Boiling rage rivaling that of the volcano she was standing on swelled inside her, cooled by a combination of chilling logic and a sudden surge of that 'tired' sensation that had been coming and going. 

With a sigh full of enough bile to poison all the oceans on all twelve of these planets, Ceylon resigned to rest herself. If she were to fight a boss for access to some mystery metal, she was in no state to do so now. 

She laid herself down on the volcano edge, knowing that her robotic body didn't move while she slept, and as infuriating as it was, she doubted the denizen would push her in. 

She laid herself down on a section of volcanic surface within a thin, carved out rectangle. She lay directly above the symbol of a gear. 

For some reason.. she passed out faster than she ever had before when her back made contact with the symbol.  
(

* * *

)  
Green Spinel: SOS SOS SOS  
Green Spinel: Immediate help needed! Maxixe's cracked! Her gem is cracked!  
Green Spinel: What do?!?  
F Ceylon: Ah yes, I'd worried I was scanning the wrong area. Do not panic, as it will only lead to a worse result.  
Green Spinel: Please tell me you know what to do!  
F Ceylon: There is a bed, a stone slab with a sort of spiral like pattern. It should be atop the highest building. If you can find it and place her on it before she shatters, she'll be alright.  
Green Spinel: Really? How?  
Green Spinel: Never mind, the crack is spreading no time.  
F Ceylon: Indeed. Please hurry. I must be returning to my own matters.  
Green Spinel: Quick question, what's the F in your name for?  
F Ceylon: A mere clarification so as not to have you confuse me with your present iteration of me. Green Spinel: ...okay I don't have enough time to try and figure that out. 

Spinel closed the communicator and picked Maxixe up. Thankfully she was both small and very light. Green Spinel scanned the area, looking for the highest point she she could find. 

When she found it, she launched herself towards it with her legs, using her free hand to stretch out further and grab it, reeling herself the rest of the way up. Once at the rooftop, she searched for the bed. 

When she found none, she repeated the process. It took several tries, Maxixe's gem crack steadily spreading and growing deeper. 

Green Spinel did all she could not to panic, but was still shaking as she climbed higher and higher up the buildings of the land. 

Finally, to her immense relief, she indeed found the bed. It was placed in the center of it. 

She hurried to it, placing Maxixe down as gently as she could and stepping back. 

She watched, waiting for something to happen. She expected to see Maxixe's gem start to reverse in damage until it was back to normal, or even just blink back to full health. 

But it wasn't. 

The cracks just kept spreading and deepening, Maxixe remaining out cold, an expression somewhere be shock and acceptance on her face. After several minutes in complete silence save for the creaking of Maxixe's gem... she shattered. 

Her gem broke apart into shards, her physical body blinking out of existence. Green Spinel starred, unable to accept what she'd just seen. 

No... no, no, no, no.. this couldn't be happening. 

Ceylon had said.. she.. she.. 

Spinel's eyes began to blur with tears, so it took her a few moments to notice that the gem shards were glowing. When she did, her despair turned to confusion. The light grew brighter until Spinel couldn't see anything passed it anymore. 

When it finally faded, Green Spinel rubbed her eyes, opening them to see Maxixe standing up, her physical body fully reformed. 

Her clothes were different though, and not the usual slight change that reforming usually brought. It was completely different, a jet black top with that swirly symbol on the front in white, a matching rather short black cape and even shorter black shorts. 

Spinel's eyes struggled to lift from what what were essentially tight black underwear on Maxixe, but the sheer shock of seeing her return from broken shards let her return looking her in the eyes from sheer awe. 

“I'll be perfectly honest,” Maxixe said, “I have.. absolutely no idea what just happened.”  
(

* * *

)  
Ceylon woke up, slumped against the wall where she'd fallen asleep while trying to call down to the hunky shelled folk below her window. 

With a dopey grin, she pulled herself up and looked out the window. Her grin melted into a frown at seeing a distinct lack of hunky shelled folk down in the street. 

Her smile returned however when her future vision informed her of who was outside her room. Looking outside the bars on her door, she licked her lips at the sight of several of the black shelled folk, even hunkier. 

She stared at their large bulky missiles for several moments, new instincts guiding her thoughts.

“Hello there~” She purred to the guards outside her room, “Mind if I come out and play~?” 

“Prisoner stays in her room.” One of them said gruffly. 

For reasons she also didn't entirely understand, these words sent a shiver down her spine. 

“I'm your prisoner am I~?” She questioned, “That means I'm yours to do with as you wish~?” 

The guards looked between one another, slightly confused and uncertain if their strange blue prisoner was really about to go where she presumed she was going. 

“If I'm not allowed to leave, then certainly you're allowed to come in~” 

When the guards still hesitated, an idea came to her. Perhaps it was her future sight, perhaps it was more new instincts. 

Outside, the guards were shocked to see the prisoner's clothing pushed through the bars and drop to the floor. 

“If nothing else, surely you can return those to me? I'll even move back to the other end of the room so you know I'm not trying to escape.” 

One of the guards, suspecting some kind of clever trick, looked through the bars. He was not met with any makings that could have been a trick. 

The room was completely empty save for the bed and the prisoner...

The door opened, the guards entering. 

Ceylon's grin threatened to go passed the edges of her face. Finally she would get what she had been.. had been.. why was she so tired... 

Ceylon sat bolt upright. 

She was certain if she could sweat she'd be drenched. She felt so tense, wound so tight that ice had begun manifesting across her body despite the heat of the volcano. 

She had a feeling of having been right about to achieve something... but try as she might to remember, it escaped her, leaving her even more frustrated than she already felt physically.


	20. Under Cover

“Pink Lace.. I think its time to focus on the game again.” Pebblesprite said. 

Pink Lace Agate had been nervous for hours. Her Rubies could be impulsive sure but it wasn't like them at all to just wander off alone, especially in a place like this. 

The Agate had searched high and low but there wasn't a trace of them; helped none by the local's refusal to talk with one another or her. 

“I know you're worried,” the sprite said, “But if we're too late beating the game, we're all doomed anyway. If we keep exploring LoGAD, we're bound to find them eventually.” Pink Lace sighed, “You're right.. you're right. I just..” 

“They'll be fine,” Pebblesprite assured her, “They have each other for fusion after all, and they were trained by you. Anyone trying to hurt them is gonna have another thing coming.” 

Pebblesprite could see that her words were working, making Pink Lace relax a bit. She smiled, happy that she could perform her function. 

As a sprite, the knowledge that she needed to keep the players playing at all costs was baked into her. 

She just wished she believed a word she was saying. Pink Lace nodded, turning to head off back to the Candle Hall. She'd caught wind that there was some kind of other power she was able to manifest, and if anywhere was going to help her unlock them, that would be the place. 

Pebblesprite followed after her, ready to help her however she could, so long as the game would allow it..  
(

* * *

)  
River's bo staff clashed with Meghan's. Well, Meghan's was technically the handle from a broom. They'd had to improvise as the elite didn't exactly spare weapons for their servants.

Of all the ursa servants, only Meghan seemed interested in helping River train, though in order for that to happen she had to be trained herself. So most of River's time, when she wasn't cleaning or otherwise serving LoKaB elite, was spent with Meghan; the two honing their skills together. 

She'd learned a lot of LoKaB's history from Meghan, about how before the Denizen had arrived, all consorts had been free to live their lives as they so chose. 

But the Denizen, Typheus, had arrived some generations back and started wreaking havoc. Before curling up into their own territory, he had appointed several of the consorts, seemingly arbitrarily, as the Kings of the land.

Since then, the Kings ruled with an iron fist, clinging to their 'god given' power. River was unsettled as she listened, and was unsettled more by the fact that she was unsettled. It sounded.. scarily similar to her own culture. 

The difference of course, she convinced herself, being that Gems really were created with all the power she would ever have. How exactly River was a fighter when other pearls were not... is something she opted not to dwell on. 

Then again, if River had become a fighter, and she was on a mission to change the world... perhaps Meghan could do so as well... 

And if Meghan was training to fight back against her masters...  
(

* * *

)  
Rhodochrosite looked out over a massive, thick, vicious expanse of red liquid. 

The Type O Ocean, an ocean of hot, roiling blood filled with monsters of all kinds. The consorts of LoLoL had been hesitant to talk at first, but she tended to have a way with people once given a chance, and soon enough of them had opened up for her to realize that this ocean was the largest source of trouble for them all. 

It was starting to overflow it seems, and each tide or wave that reached a little too far inland brought with it blood born monsters that would rain terror on the consorts. The immediate solution would be to fight off said monsters and maybe help them bolster their defenses. 

But Rhodi was an engineer after all, and was more keen on fixing the problem permanently, and that meant removing the ocean as a problem altogether. She could do quite a lot, but draining an ocean to acceptable levels was a bit of an ask for her. So for this, she'd needed to call in the cavalry. 

“Nice to finally see you in person.” 

The fusion greeted as Lazurite landed next to her. “Same to you.” Lazurite said with a smile, catching Rhodochrosite off guard. She'd been expecting some kind of reaction to her being a fusion. The lazuli did seem surprised, but also didn't seem to care. She supposed Lazurite was one of the better friends in their little group. 

“Think you can handle all this? Sorry for springing it on you out of nowhere.” She apologized. 

Lazurite snickered, “It's been awhile since I've had this much liquid to really work with. Might be a little shaky, but I think I can manage.”

Lazurite stepped forward, closing her eyes as she held her hands out, focusing her powers on the vast ocean before her. There was silence and stillness for a moment before the blood began to seemingly stir and bubble. 

The lapis drew the liquid towards a singe point, from which it began to rise up and into the air. Rhodochrosite watched in awe as the displace, the blue gem's power slowly forcing more of the blood together and outwards, forming an arc to move the blood into the closest and most wide open area; which had the dual purpose of also drowning any land based monsters in the area. 

Rhodochrosite nearly asked her to stop when she saw her start to strain herself, body starting to shake as her teeth grit. 

She wasn't nearly done and if she was struggling already she was likely to hurt herself. But the fusion was stopped by the odd, purple haze that seemed to form around Lazurite. 

It flowed like smoke, and seemed to draw inward towards Lazurite's gem, which began to glow purple with it. 

As she became more aware of this odd energy, she realized that it was trailing back to the consort villages, seeming to rising from them and flow out into Lazurite. She wanted to question what was happening, but could see that whatever it was, it was stabilizing Lazurite. 

Her shaking stopped, the flow of blood out of the ocean not only carrying on, but increasing in power. It wasn't just helping Lazurite, it was boosting her something. 

Worried that questions would break the blue gem's focus and end whatever was happening, Rhodi bit her tongue for the time being, allowing Lazurite to do her thing, forcing more and more blood out of the Type O Ocean.

In moments the shore line was drawing back. In minutes, massive misshapen monsters that was had lived within the blood were beached on now dry land, slowly drying out themselves and dying, bursting into grist as they did. It was quite the sight to say the least. 

Finally, Lazurite had drained the ocean to the point that it couldn't possibly become an issue for consorts, leaving not only a massive amount of grist, but also previously hidden items and treasures that had been submerged.

“That... that was incredible!” Rhodi exclaimed as Lazurite panted, “Th.. thanks..” She panted. 

“What.. what was that?” Rhodochrosite questioned, “That.. purple.. smokey stuff.” Lazurite, once she picked herself up, seemed to beam at the question. 

“New.. power. I think it comes from the game. Desert Glass says that I'm 'using negative energy', which sounds more evil than its turned out to be. Whenever something is frustrating or angering or scary, I can draw that out and use those feelings like energy. Its.. very useful.” She said, gesturing to the newly formed Type O lake. 

“No kidding.. not too shabby for someone Homeworld shunted to a side project.” Rhodochrosite snorted. Lazurite chuckled, “You can say that again. Let me know if you need anymore help, I'll be back on my land. I've got a storm monster to fight.” 

And with that, Lazurite took off back towards the Gate to return to her own land, leaving Rhodochrosite to wonder if she had some kind of hidden power within this game to...  
(

* * *

)  
White Corundum: So it's, like, a desert on your land?  
Green Spinel: Yep. Super bright one two. There's, like, four suns here. You know its too bright when a being mostly made of the stuff is getting blinded. Then again after everything that happened on Maxi's.. I'm almost glad to be back.  
White Corundum: Yeah that sounded really rough. You sure you're okay?  
Green Spinel: I'll be fine. It was definitely a shock to see it, but she seems to be alright, if a little... confused by the clothing change. Won't hear me complaining though, heh.  
Green Spinel: But enough about me, how goes it with you?  
White Corundum: It's.. fine. Boring really.  
Green Spinel: Really? Sounded pretty miserable earlier.  
White Corundum: Yeah.. just.. kind of lost. Its just all green everywhere so its hard to know where to go. I guess your desert probably has the same problem ^^U  
Green Spinel: Corundum you don't know the half of it XD  
White Corundum: Heh, I'll bet.  
White Corundum: I.. I'd really like to see you. Like, in person.  
Green Spinel: Then we'd better get off of here and get to finding out way around these lands!  
White Corundum: Yeah.. good point. Talk to you later. 

White Corundum signed out and looked up from the machine, the small amount of mental clarify she'd gained from focusing on Green Spinel burning up like the trees around her. 

She was so lost and confused, she couldn't make heads or tails of anything. 

She didn't know where she was, she didn't know why fire kept happening, she didn't know why it burned black, she didn't know why there were cracks forming in her helmet, she didn't know why she felt so dizzy and woozy all the time now and she really didn't know she felt so tense when Spinel called her by her name. 

All she did know is that she wanted to find and meet her, and if nothing else, the train of fire she was at least making getting through the jungle easier.


	21. Unknown

Ceylon had foreseen the Mad Scribe before she'd arrived. 

Her powers had been greatly dampened since entering her mechanical body but it was more than able to peek at something that near to the present. 

The boss monster was odd, resembling the insectoid consorts of her land, but thoroughly living up to its name of 'Mad Scribe', a babbling, jittering psychotic that wandered the Rooted Tomes; a massive book on Ceylon's land that pulled information to it the way a tree did nutrients through its roots. For whatever reason the Scribe guarded the tome, and attacked any it even presumed to be trespassing. 

Ceylon could only assume it had been the information of the tome itself that had driven the creature so mad, leaving him a husk rambling about logic and paradoxes. She was in no shape to fight the thing in her current state, she could see quite clearly that any attempt on that would leave her body in pieces. 

Luckily she didn't need it dead. 

She wasn't here for very much. The Mad Scribe seemed to know she was coming before she landed, a blast of ethereal light firing at her from the creature's hands. She dove out of the way and returned fire, putting everything she could muster into a single, concentrated rush of ice. 

The Scribe was encased in this blue ice. She wasn't sure how long it would hold, but she was certain she'd be long gone by the time it broke free. Hurrying passed the deranged insect, she approached the Rooted Tome. 

With a sigh, opened it, and as if off its own accord the pages fluttered to exactly the page she needed; showing her the locations of the special metals her denizen had tasked her with gathering, too well hidden for her handicapped future vision to spot. Memorizing the locations, she took off to collect. 

Not a second too soon either; as she heard the ice cracking as she flew away.  
(

* * *

)  
Maxixe still wasn't used to her new outfit. 

It seemed a smidge too revealing for her liking, confirmed by the Green Spinel's inability to keep her eyes above the belt before she'd returned to her own land. But she was thankfully away from prying eyes. 

Actually, she realized, she was away from all eyes. She wasn't certain when exactly she'd become lost, though she refused to admit she was lost at all. Certainly not, she was simply exploring the uncharted territories of the land. Yes, that was it. Perfectly logical to be doing. 

That being said, she'd certainly like to be exploring somewhere above ground again. She'd been wandering through a cave system for longer than she realized, and wasn't entirely certain of her way out. But the deeper she went... the more she felt something. She couldn't explain what, not even to herself, but she felt some kind of presence within these tunnels. 

Given that the last powerful presence she'd met had shattered her, she had her scope at the ready; but the closer she got the more certain she was that the Carrier Frog was practically nothing compared to what she was feeling now. 

And yet for all her trepidation couldn't convince herself to stop moving closer towards it. It was like it was calling to her.. ridiculous as the thought seemed. 

When she found the source of it though, it seemed much less ridiculous. The tunnel opened up into an utterly massive open cave, the stone she walked on coming to an end at a pit so deep the darkness of it reminded her of the vastness of space she was used to seeing from her ship view when traveling between starless areas. 

She tensed when she realized the cave was shaking slightly, tremors caused by something impossibly large moving within the cave. The beast slowly rose into view, Maxixe staring slack jawed at the creature before her. 

She was horrific and beautiful and incomprehensible all at once. The bulk of her body was serpentine, long slender serpent's tail leading up to the body of a woman, a woman beautiful save for the uncountable, impossibly spark spines lining her back. 

Maxixe couldn't move, nor could she speak, so certain that doing anything would mean her shattering and she wasn't sure if she'd come back a second time. Rather than attack her though, she creature spoke. 

She spoke in a voice that Maxixe had no words to describe, one that she'd never heard and didn't speak, but that she somehow understood perfectly. 

“Why have you come to the layer of Echidna? You are surely to weak to face me now.”

Despite the imposing aura of this creature, Maxixe found herself still offended. Before she spoke though, the creature-Echidna-continued. “Have you perhaps come to hear The Choice?”

Maxixe hesitated at this. She was uncertain of anything this serpent was saying, but if she was some late game entity, it may be prudent to know where she was headed so she could better prepare for it. “Yes,” She said, “I would like to hear this 'Choice' of yours.” 

“It is a simple one, one possible only to you. You must either free me from this pit and allow me to explore space freely, or kill me and condemn the session to failure.”

Maxixe stared at Echidna, no longer in awe of her presence and more in sheer dumbfoundedness of the statement. 

“You expect me to find a way for you titanic girth out through those tunnels? I'd need nukes the size of small moons to clear a path like that! How do I know you aren't just trying to save your own hide hm?” 

“I expect only for you to make a choice. Take all the time you need to do so.”

And with that, Echidna retreated back into the darkness, leaving Maxixe to stare in confused frustration for several minutes before turning back and attempting to find her way out of the tunnel system.  
(

* * *

)  
Imperial Jade had practically become a local celebrity across LoSaM; spoken of in an especially enigmatic tongue to prevent *them* learning of the entity that had been come to be called the Shadow Knight. 

Jade was quite pleased with the nickname, even more so as she trained her shadowy powers within the forests and old marble alleyways. She had come to realize that her ability to pick up on and easily communicate with the thick and deceptive language her consorts spoke in was not merely the result of her component Gems having lived with a similar dance for ages. 

It was itself a power. She drew from more than literal shadows it seems, able to draw power from deception itself, channeling it into her words and movements. 

To what extent she could push it she wasn't certain, but it seemed to silence her steps and turn her into a liar that would make the locals sound like they'd been dipped in truth serum. She'd decided to refer to this ability set as 'Under Cover.' 

Whether she had truly come up with the name herself or if it were fated to be called as such she wasn't certain. 

But it would not be nearly as useful for her current mission as her other ability. She had not yet been able to replicate her shadow summoning of weapons again, at least not to the extent she had the first time. 

It seems to have been something of a surge of panic that had allowed her to do something requiring so much power. But she could happily store weaponry inside shadows, pulling them out of seemingly thin air later, and if she focused could do the same herself. 

The feeling was.. unsettling; something akin to being conscious while simultaneously not existing. But it was quite handy to avoid an attack. She'd come to call these ability, as well as the previous she had used 'Shadow Tools.' 

And with these tools she currently hunted a local boss monster. 

The Empty Forest, it seems, was Empty for a reason. Something inside was killing everything that entered too deep. And while Imperial Jade had heard tale of another location that had also been cleared out, a quarry where all who tread were eaten by what lay within, whatever was in the forest wasn't just eating. It was killing. 

She supposed she only got as close as she did thanks to Under Cover, perhaps the first being to see the beast, The Grand Young as its health bar called it, before it began attacking. The massive quadruped had replaced the many thin legs of the previous monster Jade had encountered with a mere four; albeit thicker than tree trunks with hooves hard as stone. 

But if there was something it and its kin had in common, it was the truly unnecessary number of fanged, slobbering mouths along its muscled, meaty torso. 

Rather than antlers though, its back was lined was lined with slick, waving tentacles. She could tell this beast was nothing to underestimate without even needing to see the health of the creature. But she was here now, and she had the upper hand. 

She reached into the shadows to draw the four bladed weapons she'd stored within, and prepared to pounce.  
(

* * *

)  
Caroline panted as she came to a stop, leaning on her battleaxe. 

She hadn't thought it possible for her to tire herself out, but she'd been at it for so long without stop that exhaustion was finally catching up. It almost felt amusing after how long she'd spent in that infernal garden. 

Thinking about that garden was, depending on one's perspective, either a good thing or bad. She'd carved her way through LoDaD to a massive nest of the Demons called the Flaming Church. 

The Demons congregated there, developing more power and planning their attacks within the ever burning building. 

It was evidently one of the most essential places on the planet to neutralize, and while it was in her sights now, the exhaustion of the Rose Quartz had prevented her from simply charging. 

But as the thought of the garden, she felt body fill with a righteous energy the likes of which she wasn't familiar with but wholey welcomed. For the garden brought up thoughts of another Rose Quartz, the one that had-by choice or not-condemned Caroline to that garden, who had damned every other Rose Quartz without a second thought, who had shattered Caroline's Diamond. 

Unknown to Caroline, a golden light began to emit from her skin, the brightest around her gemstone. She stood up straight, exhaustion not merely forgotten but gone altogether as she hefted her axe, eyes narrowing at the Flaming Church. She couldn't bring any justice to that rogue Rose Quartz, but she could certainly bring it to these accursed Demons. 

She took off towards the building like a rocket, a word flashing in her mind and though she knew not its meaning she welcomed it as much as she did this knew energy. 

*Glorious Charge.* 

She crashed through the wall of the flaming demon hive with more force than she'd ever done anything, and with a roar that carried more power than she'd felt in awhile, she set dispatching the occupants. 

She moved without thought, the energy guiding her hands as her axe seemed to cut through Demons with an ease she'd never noticed before. 

Caroline didn't know how long it was before she came back to, kneeling on axe and panting even heavier than before. The Flaming Church was not merely cleared out but leveled; a battle meant for an army finished by a single soldier with a single axe.  
(

* * *

)  
Hessonite marched back and forth across the line of Rubies and Carnelians she had collected. 

They all noticed that the normally collected demeanor of a Hessonite was gone, hands shaking and mouth spitting as she spoke, eye twitching as she used her wrists to wipe dried saliva and honey that had crusted around her mouth away. But for as odd as it was, they couldn't see anything wrong with it. 

They'd all had some of the same honey themselves, and her actions were starting to make more and more sense to them all. 

So when the soldier gem spun them a story of treachery and betrayal, of anti-Diamond terrorism gallivanting across these twelve planets and that had even corrupted their own allies such as Pink Lace and Ceylon; they listened. 

The Hessonite's ravings were interrupted by a ping on her scanner. She eyed the screen and smiled, “And it looks like we've got some more allies.”


	22. Love and Loss

Pink Lace Agate, though she was having quite some difficulty carrying on without knowing where her Rubies had gone, had followed Pebble's advice and set to learning more about her land and her powers.

She may have been an emotional gem but she still knew how to do her job. The Old Candle Hall was excellent for clearing her mind and had plenty of art and literature to help her focus.

While she didn't understand all the details, she was able to gather that she was something referred to as a 'Heart player,' and that whatever powers she was to develop would be in some way connected to the self, to the true inner self, the 'soul.'

The concept of the soul was difficult for Pink Lace to comprehend at first, but she managed to understand it by conceptualizing it as the light within her gem, the her at the core of her being.

The information she managed to collect seemed to support this view, and she meditated on the concepts, focused her mind inward.

Though she was unable to see it, she began to glow a faint pinkish purple as she meditated, as she dwelled on her values and what drove her. She felt a serene calm as she meditated, and time seemed to melt away around her.

At some point she finally decided to try and test whatever it was she had unlocked. While she was uncertain what her role in all this was, she was quite certain of one thing.

She sought to help others. An Agate's job was to lead others, and while most did so with fear and brutality, Pink Lace was more fond of doing so with kindness. She spoke with the consorts of her land.

The mole like beings were by and large against conversation, so it wasn't until she found a lone child of their kind crying she had a chance. She knelt down to ask the girl what had happened. She frowned as the consort showed her leg, cut and bleeding from a nasty fall.

Pink Lace took a breath and held her hands over the girl's as she once again clutched her leg. She cast her mind back to the feeling she had dwelled on during her meditation. She once again began to glow, and she listened as the girl's cries slowed, then stopped. She opened her eyes and removed her hands.

As the girl did the same.. she saw that the cut was gone.

River ducked under the swing of Meghan's staff, having her own strike blocked and countered.

They'd been at it for some time, going back and forth. Both were getting quite good, better than any standard prisoner would be in any event.

River had noticed muscle developing on Meghan's body, and while she was entirely uncertain what that was or meant, Meghan assured her it was a good thing; her body developing as a result of their hard work.

River explained to Meghan that her kind only changed when they chose to, physically at least, and had demonstrated her shapeshifting ability.

Meghan had been remarkably interested in this, and seemed to have an idea the moment she saw this; though she'd not told River immediately. She didn't mind, more than happy to simply spend time with Meghan while she worked it over in her mind. Finally, the night before, Meghan had revealed her plan.

"You can shapeshift into anything right?" She had asked.

"More or less. Copying actual abilities is rather more difficult, but appearance wise anything goes so long as I don't hold it too long."

River had confirmed. "Then.. we might have a way out of here." Meghan said, "You can shapeshift into one of the guards, or even one of the Kings. Say you're transferring me or maybe even all of us servants. Once we're out we can find somewhere safe."

It.. wasn't a bad plan; its main flaw being that it relied on River being able to speak with authority and confidence; something she was quite certain she couldn't do.

Meghan had pouted, "Don't be so down on yourself. You're stronger than you give yourself credit for. Honestly.. you could probably fight your way out if you wanted, the acting idea is just if you want me to come with you."

River had paused at this. She felt something unfamiliar.. well.. no.. it was not an unfamiliar feeling; she simply seemed to feel it only in Meghan's presence.

She couldn't describe it, not even mentally comprehend it; but she could say something to Meghan. "I do want to take you with me." She said.

Meghan smiled, hugging River close. That strange feeling radiated through River so fiercely she wondered if Meghan couldn't somehow feel coming off of her.

If she did she didn't say it. They'd returned to their routine, readying the plan to go into effect the following night.

But as they trained, the door to their quarters swung open with the force of a cannon shot. As the guards surged in, slamming a cane into River's gut to send her to the ground, it became clear what was happening.

The guards had found out about their escape plan.

They had been monitoring them, as they did for all servants to prevent uprisings. And while it was River's powers which would have been the lynch pin, it had been Meghan's idea; and therefore she was the true one to blame.

So while River was merely beaten by several guards, the others grabbed Meghan, dragging her away. River's eyes began to water, breaking into sobs.

Not from the pain.

She knew where Meghan was going, she had learned from the other servants the highest punishment for those who would trifle with the rule of the Kings of LoFaK. The Great Dungeon.

Olive's drones had only become more powerful.

She'd continued to upgrade and augment them both manually and with alchemy. Much as she was uncomfortable by how arcane the alchemic process was, it allowed her to advance her machines well and truly beyond what she'd have been able to do by hand.

The sentinels orbited her and destroyed anything moving towards her that wasn't white listed; which basically meant everything but gems, consorts, and sprites.

This made the demented consorts that tried to attack her something an issue. She'd nearly been poofed when one of them tackled her and began wailing on her while the drones had been unable to recognize the insane consort as a threat.

The sprite drone had needed to help with that, and after that a new upgrade was implemented; allowing the drones to recognize the crazed consorts and restrain them. Seeing the crusted honey around their mouths, Olive was swiftly able to put together that consuming the honey was driving the consorts full tilt mental.

More specifically, it was the result of drinking the water of the fountain Olive had repaired. It seems diluting it with anything resulted in legitimate mania.

The cracks Olive had fixed must have been allowing the odd water leaking into the odd rivers of honey from which the consorts drank. From there it was easy to determine the cure; simply force feed them the pure stuff. This seemed quite effective at freeing them from their madness, if leaving them very confused and afraid.

Just another problem for a peridot to fix. She chuckled to herself as her drones atomized an odd chrome humanoid. It had been posted at the entrance to some kind of cave, so out of curiosity she decided to search inside. The space was vast, and upon seeing its occupant, Olive realized why.

From the space below her, a serpent unlike anything Olive had ever seen rose. Its body was blue up to the head, where its face was.. indescribable. And for a peridot of any kind to say that... Olive felt suddenly out of depth, like a quartz soldier fighting passed rubies only to find herself locked in a room with Yellow Diamond.

You are a very intelligent being. The entity said.

It spoke with no malice but the fact that Olive could understand its words despite not knowing whatever language it was speaking only unnerved her more.

As such, I do not think you wish to battle me.

"M-most certainly. I believe I'm lost in fact." Olive said quickly.

I am Metis, the denizen of this land. I will be your final opponent here.

"I-I have to fight you?" She questioned, suddenly much, much less impressed with her drones.

Indeed. Unless you accept The Choice.

"The choice? What is it?" She questioned, desperate for any way to avoid battling what seemed to Olive to be power and wisdom in physical form.

There is a being on this land, the ruler of the consorts. She is known as the Jittering Queen. It is she who forces her subjects to continue harvesting and consuming the tainted honey. Killing her would bring freedom yes, but to bring peace, you must repair her mind.

"So.. feed the Queen some of that mind water?"

The water will not fix the queen. Her mind is too broken. You must fix her as you would one of your own machines.

"...And what exactly is that supposed to mean?"

That is for you to decide. You need not attempt if you wish not to. But know this: if you slay the Queen, you must also try to slay me.

And with that, Metis recoiled back into the pit, leaving Olive confused, terrified and frustrated. Olive left the cave, knowing less than when she'd entered. She tried to unravel the denizen's riddles as she walked, her drones still defending her as she contemplated.

Finally an idea came to her. While the water wouldn't help the Queen, it would likely help her.

If the fountain's water focused your mind, she could use it on herself to try and figure out what Metis had asked of her. She took out the vial of water she'd taken and, with a moment of hesitation, downed it all.

There was a moment of stillness, and then Olive's eyes widened as she began to understand so much more than she had before...

Rhodochrosite had been hard at work lately.

With the bloody water and the beasts it spawned dealt with, all that remained to harass the consorts and make them paranoid were the monsters that stocked the land.

The reptilian consorts were were nervous and untrusting of one another, but they were starting to open up more and more these days. Rhodi has a way with tools of course and was fortifying their towns one by one.

But more than that, she had a way with words.

Her reassurances and charming energy was keeping the consorts spirits up, having them out and about and pleased to see one another before the walls were even finished. And when they were finished, the consorts were practically back to a normal functioning society.

She wasn't sure if she had all the towns yet, but was pretty convinced she'd gotten the majority.

She worked tirelessly. With no need to sleep, no sea born blood monsters and the energy of a fusion, she moved like lightning through LoLaF, leaving towns built like bunkers and citizens laughing and cheering in her wake.

She was relaxing now, a luxury she afforded herself only because the MoongoddessSprite insisted she do so.

As she did this though, she heard something in the air. She recognized the sounds of Olive's drones before she saw her little green friend, and was worried Olive was bringing bad news.

She looked rather frantic, holding onto one of her drones like a life preserver as it carried her through the air.

Surprisingly, though, Olive didn't bring news of an issue on her land nor an injured ally. She dove from the drone into Rhodochrosite's arms, hugging her close.

"Woah, what's gone and gotten into you?" She questioned, surprised by the open and aggressive show of affection.

"The Water of Decision." Olive answered matter of factly.

"..Is that a metaphor or..?" Rhodochrosite questioned.

Olive shook her head, giving her fusion friend a dopey grin that looked simultaneously uncanny and adorable on her face, "My land has a fountain, it produces special water. I.. I thought it focused your mind or0or made you smarter. But I was wrong~" She purred the last sentence, the tone making Rhodi blush slightly.

"That so? Well what does it do?"

"It opens your mind~" Olive purred again, "It unclouds it. It.. removes the mental blocks that limit your perspective. Lets you see the true extend of the possibilities you can explore. It lets you see just how many choices you have, lets you truly understand those choices."

Her voice sounded somehow at the same time frantic and completely calm, like she knew what she was doing but was doing it with every emotion that existing burning inside her.

"You alright? You seem.. out of it." She said.

"Oh trust me Rhodi, I've never been better in my life~" Olive said, giving the fusion a look that sent a shiver down her spine. "Now why don't we go.. explore the possibilities together~"


	23. Heat

Lazurite looked in awe at the building before her. The temple was carved from purple stone, looking at the same time like an orderly built structure and a chaotic, jagged mess. 

It was beautiful in an demented sort of way. The Temple of Grand Emotion it was called. 

Lazurite had learned from the consorts that this place was once something of a religious site, a place the consorts had once gathered to relish in and worship music as well as their own strong emotions; which were apparently amplified within the walls of the structure. 

But when the denizen arrived, the underlings invaded and bastardized the place to worship the denizen. Any consorts who entered were either killed, driven out, or broken down until they to worshiped the denizen. 

Lazurite's eye twitched at the thought, bringing out her wings which formed into spiked fists. She couldn't pin down exactly why the thought of what the underlings and denizen were doing here made her so angry-or at least was unwilling at the moment to let herself pin it down-but it did and it did so with a vengeance. 

The water that composed her wings seemed to heat up, giving off steam as she entered. She still didn't fully understand the power she seemed to derive from rage, but she'd be lying if she said she wasn't about to enjoy using it to bust some underling heads. 

Inside the temple she found dozens of imps, a few ogres, a basilisk, a creature the health bar called an archeon, two lichs and several golems carved from the same purple material. 

The imps rushed her at once, Lazurite's wings, practically bubbling with the power of rage, slapped them away with such force that they were crushed on impact with the walls, floor, and pews and reduced to grist. 

The power, which she'd come to know as Hype Up, was practically intoxicating, even if it did often leave her seeing red. 

The fists shifted shape, becoming long, sharp blades made solid by the purple energy. She launched herself at the nearest ogre, slashing off its mechanical drone hand before running up the arm. 

Two song stone hands rushed at her to smash her, both of which she diced in two before jumping at the ogre's neck; spinning herself like a wheel so her bladed wings decapitated it like a buzz saw. Her wings extended to act like a shield bubble. 

Spells from the lichs, the fists of the golems, laser shots, ice blasts, and vines from the ogre buffeted the shield while the basilisk coiled around it, constricting around it with its serpent like body as well as sand it was able to control. 

Gritting her teeth, she focused inward, focused on her own rage, on the rage of the consorts who were driven out and mistreated. 

She hated it. Hated what had been done to these innocent people, what her friends were having to go through, that Caroline had had to keep something so big hidden from her, what had happened to her... 

It was the last thought that tipped the scales. 

With a roar, spikes of blue water and purple rage extending from the bubble, reducing the basilisk to yet more grist. She held her hands out, letting rage spread and intensity. 

“Riot.” She hissed, the word coming to her before she knew what she was saying. The battle continued to rage on certainly, but Lazurite was no longer a part of it. 

Consumed with fear, hatred, and paranoia the underlings resorted to attacking each other, ripping each other apart until all that remained were piles of grist and a heavily damaged archeon. Said archeon was dispatched by a smack from Lazurite's water wings. 

She panted, the energy slowly fading from her as the battle drew to a close. She walked around the temple, gathering the grist passively. She moved to one of the areas the consorts were meant to sit and meditate on their emotions and music. 

And while the music was still distorted and broken, Lazurite had more than a few emotions she had to sort out. 

So she sat, legs crossed and eyes closed as she allowed herself to meditate on the meaning of rage.  
(

* * *

)  
Green Spinel squinted as she looked around, scanning the golden pit for any sign of the Nephrites that had been scattered across the various other treasures. 

“You said they were here.” Maxixe said, foot tapping impatiently in the sand as she struggled to tolerate the intense sunlight of LoGaS. 

“They were..” Spinel said, “Far out, too far for me to stretch and I can't talk inside without those ornery monsters swarming me.” 

“Well they clearly aren't here now. I've scanned every inch of it.” Maxixe said with a sigh, “Maybe they reformed and wandered off. If you find them again let me know and I'll see what I can do but right now I still have my own land's riddles to deal with.” 

Green Spinel frowned at this, but genuinely couldn't fault the aqua marine. She herself had barely done anything on her own land outside of destroying a few monsters and stare at a pit of treasure. 

Maxixe flew off, heading back for the Gate that would lead to her own land. She heard a beep from her communicator as she flew. 

White Zircon: Checking in, status report.  
Maxixe: And here I thought you'd up and shattered or fallen off the planet. Not that I could blame you for either after everything that seems to be happening. White Zircon: Hardly. Nothing I've found on this land seems especially impressive from a combative perspective, my battle screens more than sufficient. The paperwork on this land is whats driving me to the brink.  
Maxixe: My word, so there is language so dense and arcane that even your mind can't wrap around it.  
White Zircon: I can fathom what I'm reading just fine, but thats precisely the problem.  
White Zircon: None of whats written seems to match what was written before or after. Its as though these people have simply been making up new laws and rules and regulations every other week for years and simply piling them on top of one another with nothing and no one to keep track.  
White Zircon: I know they always say that in the absence of the Diamonds a Zircon could make a law sound like it meant anything, but anyone could make this jumble of nothing mean anything. Vacuous nonsense from beginning to end.  
Maxixe: Be glad the only vacuum you're dealing with is in paper and ink. I'm over here attempting to understand how to manifest the powers of space itself, or so I'm told.  
White Zircon: Space hm?  
Maxixe: Yes. I meant my denizen. She tasked me with something impossible. She wants me to free her from her pit, but she's the size of a small city block and the tunnels leading to her are a bit tricky for me to get through in places. Barring cracking the planet open like an egg I'm at a loss.  
White Zircon: Hm.. well I may have a theory.  
Maxixe: What else is new.  
White Zircon: I can just as easily keep it to myself you realize. 

With a grumble and a sigh, Maxixe messaged again. 

Maxixe: My apologies. Please continue. 

The following message took longer than it should to send. Maxixe could only imagine Zircon had had trouble understanding the meaning of the words 'my apologies' when sent from her.

White Zircon: Well.. I doubt space itself is all there is to your aspect. I suspect space as a concept, physical space, may play a role. Size, shape, dimensions of matter. 

Perhaps think on this while on your land. Perhaps something will click. 

Maxixe: I'll think on this.  
Maxixe: Thank you. 

She felt odd sending the last message as she passed the Gate into her land, but didn't let herself dwell on it as she set herself to studying space.  
(

* * *

)  
White Corundum: Gonna be okay?  
Green Spinel: Here's hoping. I'm thinking that those flying whosits took the Nephrite gemstones off to these 'boss monster' folk for safe keeping. I'm entering one of their pyramids now to see if I can sneak it back. If I can't.. well, things will get interesting I suppose.  
White Corundum: Heh, things are always interesting with you aren't they? :D  
Green Spinel: Daw shucks, aren't you sweet. White Corundum: Just being honest ^-^  
Green Spinel: You'll be a peach to have around if we ever get to meet in person. Given how many traps and tricks and turns this place has to offer I'm having my doubts though.  
White Corundum: Trust me.. I know the feeling. I don't even want to talk about my land.  
Green Spinel: Alrighty then. Suppose we'll have to talk later. I found a room that looks mighty important. Talk to you later! 

White Corundum signed out, her smile evaporating the precise instant she could no longer see Spinel's icon. 

Without it, all she could see was the devastation around her. She wasn't certain what this place, the 'Bower of Growth and Bails' as it had been called by its sign, had been meant for. It had been overflowing with life, plants and fairies and the strange underling creatures. 

But whatever it was for, it would never serve its purpose again. 

She hadn't meant to, she really hadn't. She'd just wanted the fairies to stop throwing rocks at her. The next thing she knew.. fire. Too much fire. It burned and burned no matter how White Corundum tried to stop it, and now... nothing was left. 

She sat in the middle of the ashy pit, feeling at least happy that no one was around to berate or attack her now. 

She looked up at the sky, nearly obscured by thick foliage, and wondered by it was that everything alive in this place hated her so much.  
(

* * *

)  
Green Spinel looked around the chamber she'd entered. It looked ancient, the stone room marked with strange patterns and lit by primitive torches. 

At the far end of the room was indeed one of the Nephrites; though locked away in a cage above a stone slab the size of a tall humanoid. 

She approached it, wondering how she was going to pry it free and where exactly the so called boss monster was. She got about halfway through the room before the answer was made self-evident. 

The stone clicked, and began to open like a door. Green Spinel watched the sarcophagus open, unaware of what she was looking at as a bulky, bandaged humanoid shuffled out, slow and lurching with a angry glare apparent even behind the bandages. 

An upsettingly large health bar made itself apparent, with the name Helos-Mummy, overhead. 

“I'm guessin' I'll have to take you down before I can get to the Nephrite.” She said, making an exaggerating knuckle popping motion as Helos lumbered towards her, only able to groan in response. 

Helos raised a hand and a sickly green aura spread throughout the room. Spinel wasn't sure what the energy was but was fairly confident in the theory that touching it was not in her best interest. She sprung back, eyes darting around for a path through it. 

Spotting areas the hazy green was not consuming, she coiled her legs like a spring and launched herself through them. She did the same with her arms and the ceiling, curling her legs differently so her knees would slam into the mummy like a hammer drop. 

It landed, sending the mummy stumbling; though not nearly as much as it should have. It reeled back and swung, Green Spinel stretching her legs up to avoid it and watching as the impact left a crater in the floor, stone shattering and shotgunning out in every direction. 

Spinel yelped as she felt the debris impacting her legs. 

She dropped lower, letting her fists grow large for several solid strikes to the monster. Strong as it was it didn't seem very fast, letting Spinel land several hits before she had to back up to avoid another blast of that green stuff. 

Green Spinels were the best of dancers but all were capable, and she was glad for it in that moment. She jumped and twisted and twirled to avoid the waves of sickly green, taking shots in between them when she could. 

When Helos once again held its arms out Spinel readied herself to dodge again, only for the mummy to not send out another blast of green. 

Rather, the bandages wrapping the creature shot out like capture wire; and sure enough they served the same purpose, coiling around Spinel and binding her, dropping her to the ground. 

Were she not a gem this might have spelled death from another green blast. Happily she was able to not only shapeshift, but expand the size of her body. She stretched the bandages to their limits, tearing through them before slamming her hands together around the mummy. 

When she withdrew her hands the mummy seemed to stumble and tall to its knees. She assumed this was it dying; neglecting to realize its health was only at the halfway point. The bandages began to fall from its body, a harsh, golden light revealed from beneath. 

Helos stood, still humanoid but a far cry from the shambling beast before. Its was much taller, about nine feet; with skin of light and an immaculate figure. 

With waves of its hand a chariot appeared for him, reigned to four legged creatures Green Spinel didn't know were called horses; all of whom seemed to be either consumed in or composed of fire. In his hand appeared a long crook, glowing just as bright as his own body.

The name on the health bar changed ever so slightly, becoming Helos-True Form. Spinel gulped, backpedaling as the chariot took off, charging her. 

She quickly realized that she did not have anything resembling enough speed to outrun it, and so resorted to bouncing away, keeping her arms and legs springing to bounce around the room like a sentient ping pong ball of death. She managed to land several potshots, but nothing solid. 

One of her attempted strikes, Helos finally landed a hit on Spinel with his crook, sending her flying across the room into the wall with a crash; cracks splintering out in all directions from the impact. 

“Ow..” she groaned, realizing that another one of those might every well poof her and even one to her gem would kill her. 

“Don't just charge in,” Nephritesprite called, making Spinel look up. 

Her supposed 'helper' had been quiet as of late, likely none too pleased to have been made a sprite to begin with. Finally, it seemed, she was being useful. 

“You'll never do much damage to him while he's mounted like that. You need to level the playing field if you're going to have any chance.” 

Spinel considered this and got an idea. She stood up but didn't move from her spot, beckoning to the boss monster challengingly, “Whatsa matter bright eyes, too afraid I'll stop your little cart mid-charge? Show me what you've got; if you've got anything at all I mean.” 

She punctuated with a laugh utterly dripping with the sarcastic mockery that Green Spinels were known for. Helos whipped at the reigns, urging the flaming horses to charge Spinel. 

She stood her ground, even tapping her foot as though waiting and annoyed he was taking so long; which only urged him to push the horses harder. 

At the last moment however, Spinel jumped up into the air, letting Helos remember too late that she'd been standing not tow feet in front of a wall. They slammed into the wall, already weakened from Spinel's impact, with enough force to mangle the chariot and do very unsightly things the horses. 

The sight of Helos smacking into the stonework was equal parts satisfying and flinch inspiring. 

And as though that weren't enough, the force was enough to bring down the already weakened wall, burying horse and Helos alike in heavy stone. It struggled for several moments to free itself, staggering out of the rock pile and kneeling on his crook. 

When Helos looked up, he found Green Spinel with her arms coiled around each other. Her locked fists fired from her body as though shot from a cannon, arms having wound them so tight that they not only hit Helos, but punched through him. 

This, combined with the damage from the crash and the collapse, was enough to defeat the entity. The cage holding the Nephrite opened, Spinel stretching an arm out to retrieve it and the grist as Nephritesprite healed her up from the battle. “

One down, two to go. Three counting Emerald I suppose.” Spinel chuckled, “Lets blow this place. Hard to imagine its dustier than the literal desert outside.” She laughed to herself, not noticing how unamused her sprite was by the joke. 

She didn't notice how continually unamused Nephritesprite was as she cracked joke after joke as they exited the pyramid. Green Spinel hadn't noticed much of Nephritesprite at all since they got to this land and quite frankly she'd not noticed or cared about any of the Nephrites beforehand either. 

“Why exactly are you collecting the other Nephrites? Don't you have an important game thing you should be focusing on.” The sprite asked, so coldly that Spinel felt the chill even under the beating of the four LoGaS suns. 

“What do you mean?” Green Spinel questioned. 

“I mean, you've never once cared about any of us before, made us the center of your mockery and let Emerald beat us like sheet rock, let me end up in this stupid sprite against my will, so why exactly are you wasting time when for the first time in your life you actually have something worthwhile to do?” 

Green Spinel stood perfectly still, staring in shock at her sprite. She'd known deep down that the Nephrites weren't her biggest fans, but to have it all illuminated so harshly... she couldn't find any words. 

Nephritesprite didn't wait for an answer, floating off somewhere Spinel couldn't follow and leaving her to ruminate on her what she had shed light on.  
(

* * *

)  
Ceylon placed the metals she had gathered at the edge of Hephaestus' volcano. 

“Here,” she said, “These weren't easy to collect so it had better have been worth the trouble.” 

“Certainly will be,” Hephaestus said, massive tail rising to sweep the rare and mystical metal into the molten magma in which he resided. 

Ceylon could only assume that the metal would melt and mix into the molten stone, becoming usable material with which he could forge. 

“There, now will you finally give me The Choice?” She questioned. “

Certainly not. You'd still choose wrong.” 

Ceylon's mechanical body looked nonplussed, robotic framework masking the cold fury boiling within. “Then. What. Was. The. Point.” She questioned, pronouncing each word slowly to avoid screaming at the massive beast. 

“If I tell you it would defeat the point. I gave you a mission but you saw only the goal; the least important element of it.” 

“I.. what? That doesn't make a sense. This is a game, games have endings and that is how you progress.” 

“It is precisely that thought that makes you potentially the least valuable player at the moment. All the others have begun to at least consider their aspect, for good or for ill. Meanwhile you, born with a connection to your own, turn a blind eye. You who begun this mission seem oblivious to the point of it all. I am disappointed in you Ceylon. Begun from me now.” 

And with that, the denizen sunk back into the volcano. 

Ceylon stood there in silence, her body not freezing over only because the heat of the volcano was more than her passive chill-limited by the mechanical body-could handle. 

She jetted off with no clear goal in mind, wondering how in the world it was that she, a sapphire, could be ignorant of the ways of time...


	24. Gem Relations

Dream Zircon opened her eyes, unsure when exactly she had gone to sleep. 

She was fairly certain she'd simply collapsed against the desk while looking over documents. Mind you, the desk she was remembering wasn't the golden one before her but a normal wooden desk, and the documents had been about the laws and an entity known as Morros, where now they were about the history of Prospit and its feud with Derse. 

Zircon was a fast learner and a faster gatherer of information from which to learn, so she'd already determined the nature of her existence as a dream self, a second Zircon that could continue to study and learn and be active while the other rested; her own sleeping correlating to the other waking. 

She'd learned that only five of her fellow players were here with her, the remaining six on the other planet, Derse. 

Zircon supposed that she needed to let her mind settle to avoid passing out so suddenly again. She got up and went out in search of Maxixe, figuring they could compare notes on what they'd experienced, both in this world and the waking one. 

Upon finding her spire, though, she found it empty; the small blue gem absent from her Prospitan room. Some asking around lead her to question Pink Lace Agate, who claimed that Maxixe simply vanished from sight while they'd been cuddled up to sleep. 

White Zircon frowned at this, finding herself annoyed. As she walked away, she wondered why she was so bothered. Maxixe was never much of a note taker, so her data couldn't have been that useful.. oh well. 

If she was gone then she'd simply have to collect information from others. She supposed, in retrospect, most would have the same information here on Prospit. Best she question someone on Derse. 

The trip to Derse was, like tedious, surprisingly easy. Dream selves being capable of flight made it rather easy to transit from the golden planet to the purple one; though it made the welcome no more warm. 

Derse soldiers began firing cannons and catapult the instant they saw Zircon in the sky. She did what she could to bob and weave between them in the air, but knew it was a matter of time until something hit her. 

Thankfully, before she opted to give up and flee, the ordinance aimed at her was demolished. 

Zircon lowered herself to the ground to greet and thank the gem who had saved her, only for her jaw to drop and eyes to widen as she looked up at the tall, four armed gem who saved her. 

“I.. um.. I.. take it you're Jade?” She questioned, adjusting her eye piece. The gem.. the fusion gem.. giggled. 

“Imperial Jade, yes. And your White Zircon I presume.” 

“Y-yes quite. I.. would like to thank you for the assistance, collecting information about this place isn't the easiest when you're being shot at I must confess. Now, if it wouldn't be a bother, would you mind if I asked you some questions?” Zircon asked. 

Imperial Jade rose an eyebrow at this, “You want to collect data.. from me? You are aware I'm a fusion right?” 

“Quite,” White Zircon said, demeanor becoming so profession that Imperial Jade could tell at a glance that she was forcing it, “Is that a problem?” 

Jade, starting to get an idea of what was happening, gave the white gem a smirk. 

“Not at all, ask away Zircon.” And with that, Imperial Jade took Zircon for a stroll around Derse; ready to answer all her burning questions about fusion.  
(

* * *

)  
Green Spinel found herself wandering the sands of LoGaS in a huff. It shouldn't be like this. She was a hero now, she'd just defeated one of the big boss monsters. 

She was supposed to be free of all the petty homeworld Gem stuff here, and that Nephrite was supposed to be her sprite. 

Sure, she hadn't be the nicest of Gems, particularly towards the Nephrites, but it wasn't her fault. It had been her job to keep that stupid Emerald laughing, and it wasn't Spinel's fault the only thing that made her laugh was other people getting tormented. 

Better she be the hammer than the anvil, surely. These thoughts and thoughts along similar lines raced through Green Spinel's head as she trudged through the sand, bashing the underlings that jumped at her as she wandered in no particular direction, not even sure where we she should be headed much less where she was. 

Her thoughts were as aimless and directionless as the desert surrounding her and Moon Goddess knows those stupid suns weren't helping, making everything blinding where they weren't just insufferably hot. The more she tried to focus, the more her mind kept getting dragged back to Nephritesprite's words. 

She shook with frustration as she forced herself to keep walking, teeth grit as she tried force herself to remember it hadn't been her fault. It hadn't, couldn't have been. 

Couldn't have... 

And just like that, Green Spinel found herself a screaming, frustrated mess, punching and kicking at the glittering sand and only not teary eyed because the sun had long since evaporated any water in her body.  
(

* * *

)  
River stood at the door, staring at it. She'd been staring at it for quite some time, unable to work up the nerve enough to actually make a move but equally unable to quell the fire that watching Meghan being dragged away had lit inside her. 

“You aren't actually going to try anything,” Morganitesprite, who'd spent most of her time hovering at one of the high windows so she could lounge in what little light the servants quarters got, said. 

It was more a statement than a question and for the first time she could remember... the purple pearl found herself upset by it. 

“I mean, it wouldn't be bad for your training, classpect wise and all that,” the sprite added as she inspected her nails, wanting to be sure becoming a sprite had not damaged them before returning her eyes to her book, “Says somewhere up here in all this sprite code you fused me into that busting up that dungeon is actually a pretty good step in your training. Not a clue why they'd task a pearl with such a thing though. I can't decide if its amusing or cruel. Don't you agree River?” 

River remained silent, hands balls into fists as she stared at the door as though hoping to burn a hole through it with her eyes. 

“I.. I could though..” She said. 

Morganitesprite rolled her eyes, “Oh certainly, certainly.” She said with the tone of a dismissive parent talking down to a child. 

River recognized the tone. When she'd first started training with her staff, she'd actually enjoyed it. It had made her feel strong.. important. Pearls didn't get that feeling often. 

Her Morganite had used that same tone back then, knocking any feelings she'd had about her training down several pegs, for what reason River couldn't have fathomed at the time. But these days... these days River was starting to think. 

Starting to get an idea why her Morganite was also so dismissive of her. Why she didn't even entertain the thought that River could be worth anything even after seeing the results of her training. 

Even now, with River's importance hard coded into her very being, Morganite couldn't comprehend her actually doing anything of value. In her mind she was always going to be on a leash, never to be given her own freedom to grow. 

'Well,' River thought-her first properly defiant thoughts-as she summoned her staff, 'If no one's going to give me freedom, I'll just have to take it.' 

The guards outside the door were more for show than anything else. Servants never really acted up so there was little need to guard them. 

So imagine said guard's surprise when the door to the servants quarters flew off the hinges, smashing them against the wall. 

They were unconscious so quickly they likely didn't have very long to experience said surprise. 

Morganitesprite watched, eyebrow raised, as River took off out of the room, practically shaking as her body acted more on feeling than thought, suppressing all the instincts she was created with. She practically flew down the stairs, guards barely standing for moments in her presence before being tripped up or knocked out. 

Its surprisingly easy to get passed people when they universally underestimate you, River realized. Morganitesprite was fairly shocked at the veritable trail of destruction her pearl was leaving. Had she always been capable of this? Had River been defective this whole time? 

Perhaps it was the game that was making this possible... but at the same time, she knew with certainty as a sprite that the game had not and would not effect her mind; not outside of natural experiences meant to promote growth and change in the players. 

'Growth and change...' She'd thought the sentence on instinct, one line among many that had been burnt into her as a sprite. Could Gems even do such a thing? 

It seemed ridiculous... and yet the River shaped hole in the door to the Grand Dungeon said otherwise. 

She began to grow uncomfortable at the thought that maybe... it had been she herself preventing River from doing what she needed to all this time. Could she... a Morganite, have been wrong? 

It seemed impossible, and yet she was looking at the impossible already as she observed the destroyed remains of a monster River had defeated. She'd ignored the grist, hardly interested. 

She was on a rescue mission after all, so it perhaps made some sense. Morganitesprite lingered there, stewing in her own thoughts. 

Morganites like herself were created to think of course, but if she'd been wrong about so much, how much more could she have been wrong about? If not for the structure and the solidity provided by the sprite, Morganite may well have descended into some Gem equivalent to a mental break down right there and then, or at least she believed she might have. 

But as she pulled herself together, she knew that going forward she could rely on only what she knew with absolute certainty. Whatever she and River had been before the game, whether it had been valid of not, whether it had been cruel or not, they weren't there now. 

River was a player of Scrust, and Morganite her sprite, her guide, and she'd done perhaps the poorest job any sprite could up to now. Her new resolve to be a good sprite was, however, not off to an amazing start when she finally caught up to River. 

The pearl was kneeling, sobbing as she shook. Morganitesprite took a deep breath as she floated closer. 

She had no experience telling a Gem, particularly a pearl, that they need not feel hopeless for being lesser, but she hoped that she could sound as earnest as she felt while trying; was even excited to inform River of the mental discovery she had made. 

But upon floating closer... she realized that no words she had would sooth River's soul. She was not weeping for herself or her weakness. She'd been reduced to these tears by the body of the very consort she'd broken in to rescue. 

Meghan lay lifeless, crumpled on the ground. There was no telling what had killed her. The Grand Dungeon had no end of means of causing pain and death. 

She'd made it farther than any normal consort should have; her training with River well at work. Not that it had lasted her very long. Morganitesprite opened her mouth, attempting to think of something, anything she could say to make the situation better. 

But no sooner had the first syllable left her lips did River send her staff spiraling at her through the air. 

She avoided the strike, but the intent behind it hit her like a dart to the gem, as did the venomous shout of, “Shut up! Please just... go away. You aren't any help. Never have been.” 

The Morganite felt frozen. 

She tried to think but could not, and if a Morganite couldn't think than.. perhaps she was right. A Morganite without words is of little more use than a pearl that doesn't serve. 

Then again, if in this world a pearl can become a hero, then perhaps Morganitesprite could do something. She was right though. Nothing she could say could help. At this point, nothing she could ever say would ever help. She'd done too much damage.

But maybe... maybe there was something else she could do. She floated so silently that River didn't even realize what was happening until there was no going back. 

Morganitesprite looked down at the lifeless eyes of the consort, giving a silent prayer that she could do more for River than she could before. 

Her last thoughts as she reached out and grabbed her was a wish that she had been able to see the grander picture of things without so much sacrificed involved; but she was not shocked by the scale of things needed to turn the mind of a Morganite. 

There was a bright flash that briefly lit up the whole dungeon. When River looked back, she was shocked by what she saw. 

Floating before her was not her Morganite, but Meghan. She was.. alive. Alive and.. floating.. and glowing.. she was River's sprite. The traces of Morganite could still be seen. 

Meghan's tattered rags were replaced with Morganite's robes, her messy hair fixed up, a gemstone where Morganite's had been. 

They had certainly merged physically. But she could see in her eyes that it wasn't some cross between the two. This was not some hypothetical Meghanite. Morganite... she'd.. given herself up; allowed Meghan's mind, her consciousness, her soul or whatever it was.. to take the forefront of the sprite. 

She looked down at River, simultaneously shocked at being alive and aware of so much more now as a sprite she couldn't possibly be shocked. 

“Well now,” She said with a warm smile, “Shall we continue our training here, or find somewhere more suitable?”


	25. Chapter 25

White Corundum stumbled out of the Gate into LoNaE. 

She hadn’t been completely certain what the spinning green disk she’d been approaching was or would do, but her sprite had seemed rather keen on her going to it. 

She’d barely touched it and found herself tumbling out into the Land of Night and Entropy. 

The terrain was rough and the sky was dark, but it was infinitely better than the nightmare of a jungle she’d been dealing with up to this point.

Maybe she could even find a friend here?   
(

* * *

)   
White Zircon: I require assistance.   
White Zircon: SOS. R: Finally need help with a company encounter?   
Maxixe: Found documents too dense to sort through finally?   
White Zircon: I assure you both of those scenarios are preferable to the situation I find myself in now.   
White Zircon: The white Corundum has found its way to my land.   
Maxixe: Oh for the love of all solid reality.   
White Zircon: My sentiments exactly.   
Olive: What exactly is the issue here? She’s on our side right?   
White Zircon: Yes, but she’s more a hindrance to me than our enemies I’m afraid. I can’t leave her to her own devices on my land, lest she stumble her way into a shattering. And if I keep her with me she’s all but guaranteed to destroy all my work here.   
White Zircon: Its very delicate business here. If a single document gets misplaced or Diamonds forbid destroyed if her latent ruby powers somehow surface, it’ll all be for naught and we’re all as good as shattered.   
R: Pretty sure teamwork is built into this game, maybe you can help her unlock some of her game powers, or even her gem powers? Then she can help you on your land if anything physical comes up.   
White Corundum: First of all, I’ll have you know that my battle screens have been perfectly sufficient to keeping me safe, even against whole swarms of enemy hostiles.   
White Corundum: Secondly even my skills of analysis have their limits.   
Olive: Limits you say? Olive: I might have something for you.   
R: Oh here we go, lol.   
White Zircon: What are we talking about exactly?   
Olive: My land came pre-stocked with a fountain of special water. Opens up the mind. Expands what you’re capable of even considering. Maybe if you let it expand your sense of whats possible, you can help her better?   
Olive: Or better yet, let Corundum drink some. Maybe she’ll finally, ya know, think right? Be able to help you with your land’s work.   
White Zircon: I doubt anything would make that possible, but I’m willing to at least try it. Coordinates.   
(

* * *

)   
Zircon passed through the Gate into LoFaH, pulling the end of the cable she’d fanished into a makeshift leash and harness for White Corundum. 

She pulled it to bring the short helmet clad gem through. White Corundum stumbled a bit, having been facing away from the Gate on the other side about to wander off. 

“Where are we?” White Corundum asked curiously as she looked around at the metallic landscape around her. 

“We’re on the Land of Focus and Hives.” White Zircon said flatly, leading the defective ruby towards the location she’d been given. 

“Whats that?” She asked as she followed along, stumbling once or twice due to the difference in the two gems’ strides before they equalized to one another. 

“Its the planet the peridot has been working on for the duration of this game.” White Zircon explained, squinting to confirm that she could see the metal gates Olive had described to her. 

“Whats a peridot?” White Corundum asked, looking up in awe at the wide open sky.

“A type of gem, typically in the court of Yellow Diamond. The one you’ve been speaking with over the communicator has been opting to go by her specified cut as Olive.” White Zircon said, restrained frustration tinting her voice as she marched them towards the fountain. 

“I know a gem named Olive! She’s green just like my friend Spinel!” White Corundum said excitedly as she looked back to Zircon. 

“Yes, Corundum, she’s a peridot.” Zircon said, rubbing her temple with her free hand as she lead White Corundum passed the gates, seeing the fountain Olive had told her about in the center of the area. 

“Can we go see her?” “No.” “Can we go see Spinel?” “No.” “Where are we now?” “We are at what I am told is called The Fountain of Choice.” “Why?” “To try and fix your defective brain. As well as your defective everything else.” White Zircon said, eye starting to twitch as she undid the harness from White Corundum. 

“What’s defective?” White Corundum asked, tilting her head. “It means wrong, Corundum.” “I’m wrong?” 

“Yes. Very.” 

“Why?” 

It was one ‘why’ too many for White Zircon. 

She stood up, picking the small gem up with her and looking her in where her eyes approximately would be under the helmet.

“I don’t know Corundum. I do not know. I don’t know why you were born defective, I’m not a Kindergartener and even if I were there are at least a hundred different factors that could have resulted in you coming out wrong. I don’t know why all our fates are dependent on us playing a game, nor do I know why said game is so lethal, nor why I was hampered to you for the duration of it. All I know is that the water inside that fountain has a slim chance of making you somewhat less useless to the mission as a whole as you’ve been up to now. So please, for the love of everything good and evil in this universe, shut up and just drink!” 

And with that, Zircon vented what frustration her words hadn’t gotten out by dropping it into the waters of the Fountain of Choice. 

White Corundum floated in the cool water for a moment before doing as instructed, opening her mouth to start gulping it down. 

She felt weird as she did this, but not weird in a bad way. Not at first anyway. Her body started to heat up as the headache that had been plaguing her since the game started returned at triple its normal intensity. 

She clutched at her head, gasps and whimpers muffled by the water as it began heating up around her. She felt her helmet starting to crack under her fingers, and began panicking.

She felt something.. Something inside her, maybe something important… break. And then she was just floating in the water once again, wondering where and what and why she was. She was a White Corundum. She was.. Defective. 

“It means wrong, Corundum.” 

Wrong.. She was.. Wrong. Steam began rising from the surface of the fountain as things began making sense to her. 

Yes… yes she was wrong. She’d been wrong all this time, terribly, horribly wrong. There was a lot, a lot wrong around her. But it didn’t have to be.. She could fix it, she could fix it all… 

White Zircon had noticed the fountain’s surface beginning to steam, but didn’t take too much notice until the water began boiling. 

Olive very distinctly had not mentioned anything of that nature. She approached it curiously only to cry out, jumping back with her batt;e screens up for defense as pitch black fire erupted from the fountain. 

“W-what the.. Whats happening? White Corundum?” Zircon questioned as a figure, bathed in the black fire, stepped out of the boiling fountain. 

They wheezed, glaring at White Zircon as she began walking forward. 

“Corundum?” She questioned, backing away slowly as her screens continued to shield her from the fire. Her eyes widened as she got a clear look at the figure. 

White Corundum… wasn’t White Corundum anymore. 

Her paper white skin was black as the fire surrounding her, emitting from her. 

Her gem, formerly on her chest, had melted away. A fake? Her true gem was visible now on her forehead; where it and her eyes had previously been covered by the now destroyed helmet.

She reached up to her gem, drawing a weapon from it. White Zircon shook as she saw what it was. 

A rock hammer. 

Her screens could only survive one strike from something like that, assuming they could even handle that after being damaged by the black fire. 

The gem-for White Zircon was no longer sure what gem she was-rushed her. 

Geodesprite is the only reason she wasn’t shattered there and then, the sprite levitating her out of the way and flinging her a good distance away so they could flee together. 

White Corundum’s Shattersprite landed in front of the pitch black gem she had become, stalling/fending her off to buy the others time to flee.  
(

* * *

)   
Green Spinel stared down the vast-worm like beast in front of her. 

She’d been coping with her recent mini-break down by smashing any and all monsters she managed to come across in the desert of her land. 

Currently she was facing down a massive fanged horror the health bar called a Burning Worm. It wasn’t exactly a boss but more than strong enough to pass for one. 

She inflated her fists to crush the monster between them; only for the Burning worm to dissolve into grist before she could lay a finger on it. 

The Green Spinel blinked in confusion before her jaw dropped quite literally to the ground as she saw the figure standing across the pile of grist. 

Sickle in hand stood a genuine Hessonite; with an eighteen foot Ruby fusion and a twenty-three foot Carnelian fusion in her stead. 

“My scanner is telling me you have the last of the Nephrites on your person,” The Hessonite said calmly, “Now tell me, will you surrender them, or are you yet another traitor?”  
(

* * *

)   
Green Spinel: ISSUES. ISSUES AND PROBLEMS   
Green Spinel: Outnumbered in several senses of the word! Back up needed immediately!   
River: ?   
Lazurite: Whats happening?   
Green Spinel: There’s a Hessonite here! And she’s all kinds of angry. Currently running.   
River: Could it be R or Caroline?   
Lazurite: its definitely not Caroline.   
Green Spinel: No way this is R. R is relaxed and more to the point on the same side as us. This Hessonite is trying to kill me! She’s got two fusions backing her up! Someone must have brought a hitchhiker when we all entered the game. I can only keep ahead of her for so long, help!   
River: On our way.   
Lazurite: The others will probably follow shortly when they see the messages.   
[Green Spinel has signed off]   
[Lazurite has signed off]   
[River has signed off]   
White Zircon: MAYDAY MAYDAY   
White Zircon: Plan failed, backfired heavily, life in danger!   
Olive: Woah whats happening?  
R: You okay? Is White Corundum okay?   
White Zircon: She’s trying to kill me!  
Olive: What?   
Jade: Whats happening?   
Pink Lace Agate: I can’t look away for two seconds without something collapsing can I?   
Ceylon: Whats going on?   
White Zircon: I took White Corundum to a fountain on Olive’s land. Water was supposed to help fix her brain. Instead it turned her into this! [image uploaded].   
Maxixe: What in the world?   
Caroline: Never seen a gem like that.. Is she an obsidian?   
Olive: Oh no..   
R: What is it?   
Olive: That.. that can’t be right, this can’t be real.   
Caroline: Spit it out greeny whats happening?   
Olive: She’s not a White Corundum.. She never was..   
Jade: Then.. what is she?   
Olive: She’s an Emery… a Black Sand Emery.   
Maxixe: And that is.. What exactly?   
Ceylon: I’ve never heard of a gem by that name.   
Olive: No, you wouldn’t have. I thought that project was scrapped before any were actually created. Black Sand Emery’s were initially convinced during the Rose Quartz Rebellion. They… they’re gems designed specifically to destroy other gems. The project was scrapped when it was realized that such a gem type could be too dangerous to Homeworld in mass produced, as they’d only need a few to switch sides to turn the tables back on us. None were supposed to be made!   
Jade: Guess we know the real reason they stopped.. They must have seen what she became after she formed and realized they couldn’t be controlled.   
R: Wait, if this is true, why have they been living as white Corundum all this time? You saw them physically in order to get them to the water Zircon, they weren’t an Emery then were they?   
White Zircon: No, they were pure white with a helmet covering their real gem and a fake one on their chest. Harmless and dopey and someone I’d much rather be in place of the kill machine currently melting a canyon through LoFaH.   
Olive: My theory- White Diamond must have been called in personally to deal with Emery when she first formed. She must have done something, something to contain the altered ruby.   
Olive: I knew from the reports that she went in person to the kindergarten where the Black Sands were supposed to come from to shut it down, but I never knew why.   
Maxixe: And now that we’re in another world, completely cut off from the Diamonds, whatever she did to Emery to keep her contained wore off?   
Olive: Weakened at least. And drinking that water broke it down completely.   
Olive: I’m such an idiot! I’m so sorry Zircon!   
White Zircon: You can make it up to me by saving me!   
Olive: We’ll be on our way. All of us together, we can definitely take her out before she shatters anyone. Once she’s poofed, we’ll be safe.   
Maxixe: Forget poofing, a gem this dangerous can't honestly be left in one piece. If she reforms she’ll be just as dangerous, possibly more so!   
Ceylon: We can’t shatter her. We all have to survive in order to complete the game.   
White Zircon: No, we need the grist from everyone’s denizens, that freak need not be alive for us to do that.   
Pink Lace Agate: She’s our friend Zircon!   
White Zircon: She’s a mindless kill monster! She was being forced to be our friend by whatever White Diamond did, and unless you know a way to summon her grace here to help us, I’m not about to risk it.   
Caroline: You can’t be serious can you?   
R: We’re supposed to be in this together. Jade: And yet our ‘friend’ is currently hunting Zircon like a feral organic.   
R: Jade.. you aren’t seriously on this to are you?   
Jade: My time on LoSaM has taught me many things. One such lesson is that not everyone can be saved. When horrid madness claims the soul, it is the duty of those still sane to put them down as humanely as possible. As the Knight of Void, I cannot let these fires of destruction spread.   
Caroline: Maxixe.. Olive.. You can’t do this!   
White Zircon: Given proper planning and resources I think you’ll find we most certainly can.   
Pink Lace Agate: We’ll stop you.   
Ceylon: We can’t let you do this.   
Jade: I will not hold your actions against you. I know they’re born out of caring. But I likewise won’t hesitate to defend my allies and the session; even from other allies.  
(

* * *

)   
Black Sand Emery stumbled through another Gate, finding themselves on LoLaF. 

Specifically Emery found herself in the B Form Badlands, an area that continually spawned monsters of the corrupted blood, even now that Rhodochrosite had drained the great ocean of blood. 

For now the area was temporarily walled off, the fusion having planned to return later once she found a way to purge the area of its monsters permanently instead of simply continually killing them as they spawned; which she had tried to do for some time before realizing how pointless it was.

Emery smiled, giggling as she watched the beasts, still dripping with the corrupted blood of LoLaF, rise and charge at her. 

There was plenty of fun to be had fixing this place.  
(

* * *

)   
Lazurite flew through the Gate to LoGaS, only realizing how necessary the alchemized shades Green Spinel had suggested were when she found herself having to focus on maintaining to wings to avoid them literally evaporating from the intense heat. 

Depressingly the heat was the least of her issues, as she met up with River on her way to Green Spinel’s last recorded coordinates. 

They’d been half-hoping that the many suns of this land had finally cooked the Spinel’s mind and made her start seeing things; and as such they felt themselves grow rather cold despite the sweltering heat upon seeing their green friend booking it away from the two fusion gems, Hessonite standing atop the fusion Ruby. 

Looks like they really did have a problem.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time on Gem session:
> 
> -Team Destroy Emery (White Zircon, Maxixe, Imperial Jade, and Olive) vs Team Rescue Emery (Caroline, Pink Lace Against, Ceylon, and Rhodochrosite) vs Emery
> 
> -River, Green Spinel, Lazurite vs Hessonite, Ruby Fusion, and Carnelian Fusion.
> 
> Place your bets~  
....  
Additionally, see Black Sand Emery's ref pic on patron for free, same as all the others.


End file.
